Joseph Hanks, Jr. moved with the family in his youth, moved with his mother move to Virginia after the death of his father. He was raised by his older brother, either Joshua or Thomas, following his mother's death in 1794. In 1798 he moved to Kentucky and worked in an Elizabethtown carpentry shop where Thomas Lincoln also worked. He married Mary Young in 1810. He moved to Crawford County, Indiana in 1815 and to 10 years later moved to Sangamon County, Illinois. (Ref: Douglas Lawson Wilson, Rodney O. Davis, Terry Wilson (1998). Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln. University of Illinois Press. p. 779)