So early as 1848 the first useful step was taken by Hon. Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, who was struck by a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln in the national House of Representatives, and wrote to ask facts as to his parentage.  The response[1] stated substantially what was afterward sent to Mr. Fell, above quoted.  Mr. Solomon Lincoln, however, pursued the search farther, and printed the results[2].  Later, Mr. Samuel Shackford of Chicago, Illinois, himself a descendant from the same original stock, pushed the investigation more persistently[3].  The chain, as put together by these two gentlemen, is as follows:  Hingham, Massachusetts, was settled in 1635.  In 1636 house lots were set off to Thomas Lincoln, the miller, Thomas Lincoln, the weaver, and Thomas Lincoln, the cooper.  In 1638 other lots were set off to Thomas Lincoln, the husbandman, and to Stephen, his brother.  In 1637 Samuel Lincoln, aged eighteen, came from England to Salem, Massachusetts, and three years later went to Hingham; he also was a weaver, and a brother of Thomas, the weaver.  In 1644 there was a Daniel Lincoln in the place.  All these Lincolns are believed to have come from the County of Norfolk in England[4], though what kinship existed between them is not known.  It is from Samuel that the President appears to have been descended.  Samuel’s fourth son, Mordecai, a blacksmith, married a daughter of Abraham Jones of Hull;[5] about 1704 he moved to the neighboring town of Scituate, and there set up a furnace for smelting iron ore.  This couple had six children, of whom two were named respectively Mordecai and Abraham; and these two are believed to have gone to Monmouth County, New Jersey.  There Mordecai seems to have continued in the iron business, and later to have made another move to Chester County, Pennsylvania, still continuing in the same business, until, in 1725, he sold out all his “Mynes & Minerals, Forges, etc."[6] Then, migrating again, he settled in Amity, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, where, at last, death caught up with him.  By his will, February 22, 1735-36, he bequeathed his land in New Jersey to John, his eldest son; and gave other property to his sons Mordecai and Thomas.  He belied the old motto, for in spite of more than three removes he left a fair estate, and in the probate proceedings he is described as “gentleman."[7] In 1748 John sold all he had in New Jersey, and in 1758 moved into Virginia, settling in that part of Augusta County which was afterward set off as Rockingham County.  Though his will has not been found, there is “ample proof,” says Mr. Shackford, that he had five sons, named Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, and John.  Of these, Abraham went to North Carolina, there married Mary Shipley, and by her had sons Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, who was born in 1778.  In 1780 or 1782, as it is variously stated, this family moved to Kentucky.  There, one day in 1784, the father, at his labor in the field, was shot by lurking Indians.