So I was reading The Story of Honest Abe’s Family Tree on the website Today I Found Out (http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/09/the-story-of-honest-abes-family-tree ). I mean, if anyone was going to read up on a US President’s family tree it was bound to be me.
Reading through the article, I had a genuine ‘wait, what?’ moment. It all had to do with one surname: Harlan. It turns out that Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, married my 6th Cousin (4x removed), Mary Eunice Harlan.
The common ancestors Mary and I share are George Harlan(d) and Elizabeth Duck; English Quakers who fled to Antrim in northern Ireland – and eventually settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Naturally, I did a quick work up of Abraham Lincoln’s family tree and soon found a surname of interest: Flower(s). It turns out that wife of Abraham’s paternal great-grandfather was one Rebecca Flowers, a daughter of a very old Quaker family in Antrim and Pennsylvania. I too am a direct descendant of the Flowers clan (yeah, I know, that sounds like a 70s hippie folk act).
However, the many branches of the Flower/Flowers family is notoriously difficult to connect. So, at this stage, I have no idea how Rebecca Flowers and her family are related to the dozens of Flower(s) I already have in my tree. Time will tell.
Yesterday I had no idea I shared a connection to Abraham. Today, I know of one indirect route through his son’s marriage. It may well turn out there is a direct route through the Flowers family.
Yet another reason why I love genealogy. The surprises just keep coming. What an adventure.
Awesome discovery!