Sarah Lincoln was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on February 10, 1807. On February 12, 1809, her younger brother Abraham Lincoln was born. A third sibling, brother Thomas "Tommy", lived for only about three days in 1812. On October 5, 1818, her mother died of milk sickness, as there was no cure for the disease. For six months, they lived alone. Her father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnson, who cared for them as their stepmother.