Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Memorandum of Births in the Hall Family, [17 May 1851 - 18 May 1851]1

Elizabeth Jane Hall, was born August 14^th 18[3?]7–2

Alfred L. Hall was born August 12^th 1839–

Sarah Louisa Hall, was born August 12^th 1841–

1Abraham Lincoln wrote the entries in this document. Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, gave this document a tentative date of 1851, but without attribution. Lincoln made entries in another genealogical record related to the Lincoln family, which is thought to have been created on either May 17 or 18, 1851—the time frame within which Lincoln visited his stepmother, Sarah Lincoln, in Charleston, Illinois. The editors therefore concur with Basler’s assessment that this document was also created sometime in 1851, and most likely on either May 17th or 18th of that year.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 2:94-96; The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 133; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 17 May 1851, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1851-05-17; Gordon Leidner, “How Many ‘Lincoln Bibles’?” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 41 (Winter 2020), 51-52; Charles H. Coleman, Abraham Lincoln and Coles County, Illinois (New Brunswick, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1955), 59.

2The script containing the year of Elizabeth Jane Hall’s birth is difficult to read. It appears Lincoln wrote it as “1837.” However, her gravestone gives her birth date as August 14, 1838, so Lincoln most likely simply recorded the wrong year.
Gravestone, Janesville Cemetery, Coles County, IL.