I heard this statement so many times, "You have so much information! You should write a book!," but until my cousin, Walter, in Kansas, started to contact me, I didn't even consider it. Then I went on websites, and realized there are so many people looking for their Hanks roots, so much misinformation, that Walter was right. I do have so much information, and I do need to write this book. I use only documented sources, and where you can also get information. I also needed to eliminate the Shipley connection, which has taken so many down the wrong path.
I am a descendant of the first Thomas Hanks, who arrived in America as an indentured, being a capture soldier of Cromwell's Army, and Thomas Hanks, the oldest son of Joseph and Ann Lee Hanks, and brother of Lucy Hanks, who is the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
I was fortunate to have many living Hanks, three generations ahead of me, to ask questions, and two upon their deaths, bless me with documents and pictures. I had a firm foundation in which to build my family tree, up to Thomas Hanks, of Ohio. But I wanted to go farther, start looking for the beginning. Who was my first American ancestor? With a solid 30 years of research, and totes of documents, I have the entire Hanks family tree, in America, which is connected to Abraham Lincoln. I also found many connections to the Lee family. Was this why Lincoln was so quiet about his family history? He was not ashamed that his mother was a "baseborn" child of Lucy Hanks, but it would have been disaster for the public to know he was related to the confederate General, Robert E. Lee. He was already watched carefully, because his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was from Southern roots.
Walter, in your wisdom, you saw this was more than just our family tree, it is a path many are searching for answers to, for their family history. Sharing all this history with others, is a good thing! Sharing it with you, has truly been a greater blessing.
The Hanks family has been a personal hobby, for many years. As a child, I was teased by my classmates, as my relationship to Lincoln was proudly announced by my teachers, every year. I grew up with Hanks relatives. As I got older, and was introduced to who and what Lincoln really was, I felt more appreciation for my family connection. But questioning my father, as to exactly how we were related to Lincoln, produced only a response of "the Hanks side," offering me no real answer. I have always been a bookworm, and as I read about Lincoln, finding his mother was also a Hanks, I had some understanding of my fathers' answers, to my questions. In my early teens, introduced to the Civil War history of America, my interest in Lincoln became well established. My junior year of high school proved just how much I knew. Someone wrote a note in my yearbook stating "thanks for answering all the questions, so we didn't have to." I was polished in Civil War History, and Lincoln.
My oldest son, Stevie, was five, when Aunt Rose Hanks Haase passed away, in Fairbury, Illinois. We wrote to one another on a regular basis, but I was still sur-prised when I was given family pictures and documents, as she had no children of her own. This began my adventure into our family history. I didn't have the tools that I now have, such as the internet, so I was dependent upon books, and my older relatives. I got to Thomas Hanks, which was an accomplishment. Now, at age 56, my family tree is very full. I was encouraged to put it in book form by Walter Hanks, and Steve Maurk, and you have them to thank for my sharing all the information I have on the History of the Hanks Family! Vicky Reany Paulson.