Nancy, and by far the most intelligent archaeologist and genealogist of that branch of the Lincoln family which includes the President. He says absolutely, and with emphasis and circumstance, that Nancy Hanks was an orphan girl at a tender age, her father being a Hanks and her mother a Berry, daughter of old Richard Berry. The latter and Abraham Lincoln Sr. married sisters by the name of Shipley, which made the President and his wife remote cousins, having the same great-grandfather and great-grandmother. Mr. Nail says specifically:
Nancy Hanks's mother was a Berry, and she married a Hanks, who was the father of Nancy; he died in Virginia and his widow married Sparrow, and Richard Berry raised Nancy. I had an uncle John N. Hill who died in Hardin County in 1883 at the age of one hundred years. He was one of the most intelligent and best posted men in Kentucky history I ever knew in my life, and this was his version of the relationship, as well as that of my grandfather William Brumfield and grandmother Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield. Uncle Hill was not related to the Lincoln family, and, of course, had nothing to cover up or conceal. He lived in Washington County in his younger days, right by the side of the Lincoln and Berry family; and was at the wedding when Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married. . . . When Lincoln was nominated for President, there were quite a number of old men living in Hardin County, among whom was old Mr. Riney, to whom the President went to school, and they knew the Lincoln and Berry families and took delight in rehearsing matters they knew in connection with them, and this was their version and understanding. It indeed was not disputed and was not discussed adversely—simply assumed as a well-known fact.
One of the most prominent citizens of Springfield, Ky., Squire R. M. Thompson, feeling the honor of his own family trenched upon by the
