Sarah Lincoln Grigsby

The Lincoln family is an American lineage of English origins that includes notable political figures and descendants spanning multiple generations. The family’s ancestral roots trace back to Norfolk, England, specifically to Edward Lincoln, born around 1575 in Hingham, Norfolk. Edward was the son of Richard Lincoln and Elizabeth Remching. Richard Lincoln, who died in 1620, was the son of Robert Lincoln (died 1543) and his father, Robert II (died 1555/1556). Richard Lincoln's will became a subject of debate due to the circumstances surrounding his inheritance and his third and fourth wives; accordingly, his children, including Thomas Lincoln and Samuel Lincoln, migrated from England to the American colonies after Richard's estate was redistributed.

Samuel Lincoln, born in 1622 in England, is recognized as the patriarch of the Lincoln family in America. He emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 aboard the ship John & Dorothy. Samuel's descendants continued to establish the family in New England, notably in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Within the broader Lincoln family, Benjamin Lincoln (1733–1810), a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is a prominent figure, although he is not confirmed to have a direct familial connection to President Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, born in 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky, in a one-room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm, is the most prominent member of this lineage. His parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, and they had four children: Robert, Edward, William (Willie), and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln.

Of Lincoln's children, Robert Todd Lincoln (born 1843) survived into adulthood and married Mary Eunice Harlan, daughter of Senator James Harlan. Robert and Mary had three children: Mary "Mamie" Lincoln (1869–1938), Abraham Lincoln II ("Jack"; 1873–1890), and Jessie Harlan Lincoln (1875–1948).

Mary "Mamie" Lincoln married Charles Bradford Isham; they had a son, Lincoln Isham (1892–1971). Jessie Harlan Lincoln married three times and had two children with her first husband, Warren Wallace Beckwith: Mary Lincoln Beckwith (1898–1975) and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith (1904–1985).

Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, a gentleman farmer, was recognized as the last undisputed descendant of Abraham Lincoln following the death of his sister in 1975, who had no children. Beckwith died in 1985 without acknowledged descendants, marking the end of the direct Lincoln lineage.

The family also has notable distant relatives, including former U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and actor George Clooney, who is related through Lincoln’s maternal line, and actor Tom Hanks, who is a third cousin four times removed from Abraham Lincoln.

In summary, the Lincoln family’s presence in America dates back to the mid-17th century, with a documented genealogy that extends through ten generations, culminating with the death of Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith in 1985.