Anyone familiar with researching family history is aware that two of the most valuable resources you can use to nail down facts include oral history and actual records, such as birth records, census records, marriage records, etc. These two methods of data collection, at their best, often complement each other. An oral tradition passed down in the family is sometimes a good starting point when consulting various records.
In the matter of Abraham Lincoln's paternity, i.e., who his father was, the oral history, collected by some seemingly sincere individuals, and the recorded history, couldn't be more conflicting.
Lincoln himself was not much interested in delving too deeply into his family history. After his nomination for president during the 1860 campaign, Lincoln's first biographer and law partner, William Herndon, records in his "Life of Lincoln":
In the matter of Abraham Lincoln's paternity, i.e., who his father was, the oral history, collected by some seemingly sincere individuals, and the recorded history, couldn't be more conflicting.
Lincoln himself was not much interested in delving too deeply into his family history. After his nomination for president during the 1860 campaign, Lincoln's first biographer and law partner, William Herndon, records in his "Life of Lincoln":
Among the earliest newspaper men to arrive in Springfield after the Chicago convention was the late J. L. Scripps of the Chicago Tribune, who proposed to prepare a history of his life. Mr. Lincoln deprecated the idea of writing even a campaign biography. "Why, Scripps," said he, "it is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray's Elegy, 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' That's my life, and that's all you or anyone else can make out of it."
Lincoln was unusually reticent about his parentage. Herndon writes that Lincoln only spoke to him one time about his mother:
