Happy President’s Day! While technically we may celebrate all U.S. Presidents, in particular today we celebrate two of our nation’s greatest leaders whose birthdays were near this date: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
George Washington’s family story in the U.S. began in 1656, when his great grandfather John Washington emigrated from Sulgrave in Northamptonshire, England to the colony of Virginia. Most of us know well the story of Washington, so rather than going into this I thought it’d be more fun to look at some records! Here are two. On the left is a land grant of 5,000 acres to John Washington from 1674. On the right, George Washington’s will, probated on 20 January 1800 at Fairfax.
Abraham Lincoln’s story began early in our country’s history too, as he was descended from Puritan weaver Samuel Lincoln, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637. As with Washington, Lincoln’s life is well-documented and easy to find and read about, so below are two interesting records. On the top is Samuel Lincoln’s death record entry in May 1690. On the bottom, Abraham Lincoln’s family’s 1860 census entry in Springfield, Illinois.
While the lives of famous ancestors are well documented, these types of records are also available for many of our lesser known ancestors in the first decades of the young U.S.
Weaving the Tapestry 