In 1778, Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lincoln, was born in Virginia, but his family moved to Kentucky when he was a young child. In 1786, his father was killed by Indians in Jefferson County, and Thomas was left to fend for himself. At age twenty-five, after years of scraping buy with manual labor and carpentry, Lincoln's purchased his first farm on Mill Creek near Elizabethtown. In 1806, he married Nancy Hanks, and on February 10, 1807, Nancy gave birth to Sarah Lincoln. The following year, the family moved to the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born at the farm. Like many early Kentuckians, Thomas Lincoln had difficulty maintaining his land claims, due to inaccurate surveys and confusion over title. In 1811, after losing the Sinking Spring Farm in a land dispute, the Lincolns moved to a farm on Knob Creek about ten miles to the north. Five years later, the Lincoln property once again became the subject of a lawsuit and the family moved to Indiana. In 1818, Nancy Lincoln died, and the following year Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston. Lincoln experienced more success in Indiana than he had in Kentucky, but he still sought better circumstances. In 1831, the family relocated to Illinois. Abraham Lincoln then left the family home to begin his own career. For the rest of Thomas Lincoln's life, he and his son had a distant relationship, both emotionally and geographically. Despite their estrangement, Abraham did provide some financial support to his father. When Thomas Lincoln died in 1851, Abraham did not attend his father's funeral.

Lowell H. Harrison, Lincoln of Kentucky (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000).