Abraham lincolns family members

Home / Historical Figures / Abraham lincolns family members

He served as Secretary of State for James Garfield. 

Family Tree Chart

Parents: 

Thomas Lincoln (1778 - 1851) - He married and had three children with his first wife. He sat in the State Legislature from 1834 to 1842 and, in 1846, was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for one term.

His father lived until 9 years prior to him being elected president, but his mother died while he was young. When his health declined in his later years, he took up golf, telling friends the sport saved his life.

“He was of a taciturn and retiring nature, and only to his close friends did he reveal himself as a charming conversationalist and an entertaining storyteller, a trait which he inherited from his father,” read an obituary.

Son: Edward (1846-50)

The cries of a grief-stricken Mary Lincoln echoed throughout the family’s house in Springfield when 3-year-old Edward died, likely of tuberculosis.

After her mother died, she took care of the household until her father remarried. In December 1865, his remains were disinterred and re-buried in the Lincoln Tomb with his father at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Son: William ‘Willie’ (1850-62)

Willie Lincoln could be rambunctious like younger brother Tad—who was known for pulling pranks in the White House—but he was also studious and thoughtful.

Abraham Lincoln's Family Tree and Descendants

Abraham Lincoln is often considered the greatest President in American History.

abraham lincolns family members

He died while his father was President.

Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (1853 - 1871) - The youngest of Lincoln's sons who survived after his father's death. He died at the age of 18 and was never married.

Siblings:

Sarah Lincoln (1807 - 1828) - The oldest sibling of Abraham Lincoln. Her strict stepmother later sent her away to school, where she received an elite education, studying French and the humanities.

In 1839 in Springfield, Illinois, she met Lincoln—“a poor nobody then.” Three years later, after a stormy courtship and a broken engagement, the couple wed on a rainy Friday before about 30 relatives and friends.

Mary, an avid follower of politics, shared in the successes and misfortunes of her husband, who took national office for the first time in 1847, as a U.S.

representative from Illinois. It had lasted for more than four years, and 600,000 Americans had died. She and Abraham Lincoln had four sons, with only 1 surviving to adulthood. Lincoln worried for her mental health.

But Lincoln's secretary John Nicolay downplayed reports of the first lady’s odd behavior after Willie’s death.

In addition to losing her mother at a tender age, she lost three young sons and witnessed her husband’s murder at close range. After Lincoln was elected president in 1860, she served as de facto White House social director as well as Lincoln’s confidante.

“He was often filled with gloom and despondency which it took all of Mary's adroitness to dispel,” wrote her half-niece Katherine Helm in a biography of the former First Lady.

Mary fought her own battles with mental health—and crushing grief.

His stepmother was also named Sarah, and she would raise him for the majority of his childhood. 

In 1842, he married Mary Todd, with whom he would stay married until his death. She gave birth to a stillborn and had the baby buried in her arms.

Thomas Lincoln Jr. (1812 - 1813) - The actual birthdate is unknown, but he would die while still an infant.

Abraham Lincoln’s Family: Meet the Key Members

Born into a large, prosperous Lexington, Kentucky family, Mary Todd Lincoln lost her mother at age 6.

After his first wife's death, he married again but had no children.

Nancy Hanks (1784 - 1818) - She died when Abraham was young and shortly after the childbirth of her third child. Less than a week later, Lincoln was shot while attending a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. and died the next morning, April 15, 1865.

He would not be able to carry out rebuilding the country after the war.

Family Overview

Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks.

However, some pivotal victories helped propel him to victory. 

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war. Finagling a release a few months later, she moved to Europe, where she lived until a year before her death.

Son: Robert (1843-1926)

Lincoln’s eldest son—the only one to live to adulthood, marry and have a family of his own—left an impressive legacy.