Scope and arrangement
The Stedman Shumway Hanks Family History Scrapbooks and Papers is comprised of sixteen bound volumes and other family papers containing correspondence, photographs, genealogical charts, clippings, printed material, wills, copies of land deeds, and other family papers compiled by Col. Hanks in the course of his genealogical research on the Hanks, Johnston, Shumway, and allied families.
Of note are volume 1, containing extensive research related to Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln; and volume 6, which is comprised of photographs, clippings, maps, correspondence, telegrams, membership cards, and printed material, ca.1920s-1950s, relating to Hanks' own military career as an aviation engineer, particularly documenting his development of the "flight strip," auxiliary landing areas for aircraft alongside public highways.
Other items of interest include Volume 3, which contains correspondence, photographs, report cards, and ephemera, 1920s-1940s, documenting his son Roger Stedman Hanks' (1921-1999) own military training and career as an aviation cadet as well as genealogical notes on other Hanks family members such as Benjamin Hanks, Jr. (1702-1746) and Horace Hanks (b.1780). Volume 5 features genealogical research notes on the Hanks, Shumway, Johnston, and other allied families by Susan Cotton Tufts, a noted genealogist who had published articles on the Hanks family.
Originally bound in a sixteen volume set entitled the "Seacroft Volumes," the remaining twelve scrapbooks have been rehoused and boxed respecting their original order. There are also some loose family papers consisting of ancestral charts, bible records, and a 1835 remembrance book belong to Emily Hanks. There is very little documentation pertaining to the Seacroft Kennels in this collection.
The Stedman Shumway Hanks genealogical research papers are arranged in two series:
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1835-1968
Includes a family bible record, an ancestral chart, and a remembrance book that belonged to Emily Hanks. Also contains genealogical chart entitled "Matincock catalogue, Exhibit 'A,' showing how the Hanks family is related to the Bartow, Shumway, Hale, and Chappell families," a consolidated index entitled "Hanks family records;" and birth, marriage, and death records of Hanks family members.
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1740-1962
This series is comprised of twelve bound scrapbooks containing original family documents such as correspondence, photographs, clippings, maps, and genealogical research notes on the Hanks, Shumway, and Johnston families. Of particular note are volume 1, which contains family documents, correspondence to Colonel Hanks, and a manuscript of "Nancy Hanks: The Story of Abraham Lincoln" by Caroline Hanks Hitchcock; volume 4, which focuses on the life and career of Roger Stedman Hanks (1921-1999); and volumes 6 and 7, which document Col. Hanks' development and implementation of the "flight strip" along the Pan American Highway and in Puerto Rico; his military service; and his civilian career.