| Sources |
- [S3272] AI CoPilot.
John Adams (1) fact
20260208GHLn-
20260208GHLn-
Descendency list of President John Adams
Below is a clean, citation?ready descendant list of President John Adams, built directly from the authoritative sources surfaced in the search results. I’ve organized it into generations, with citations after each section so you can use this in genealogical work.
???? Descendants of President John Adams (1735–1826)
(Through his marriage to Abigail Smith Adams)
John Adams and Abigail Smith had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. All known descendants come through three of those children.
Generation 1 — Children of President John Adams
1. Abigail “Nabby” Adams (1765–1813)
Married William Stephens Smith
Children:
William Steuben Smith
John Adams Smith
Caroline Amelia Smith
Arthur Adams Smith
2. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) — 6th President of the United States
Married Louisa Catherine Johnson
Children:
George Washington Adams
John Adams II
Charles Francis Adams Sr.
Louisa Catherine Adams (died in infancy)
3. Susanna Adams (1768–1770)
Died in childhood.
4. Charles Adams (1770–1800)
Married Sarah “Sally” Smith
Children:
Susanna Boylston Adams
Abigail Louisa Smith Adams
5. Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832)
Married Ann Harrod
Children:
Abigail Smith Adams
Elizabeth Coombs Adams
Thomas Boylston Adams Jr.
Frances Foster Adams
Isaac Hull Adams
John Quincy Adams (namesake nephew)
Joseph Harrod Adams
6. Elizabeth Adams (1777)
Stillborn.
Sources:
WikiTree descendant summary
Adams Family Tree, Massachusetts Historical Society (descendant spans)
Generation 2 — Grandchildren of President John Adams
Through Abigail “Nabby” Adams
William Steuben Smith
John Adams Smith
Caroline Amelia Smith
Arthur Adams Smith
Through John Quincy Adams
George Washington Adams (1801–1829)
John Adams II (1803–1834)
Charles Francis Adams Sr. (1807–1886) — diplomat, historian
Louisa Catherine Adams (infant death)
Through Charles Adams
Susanna Boylston Adams
Abigail Louisa Smith Adams
Through Thomas Boylston Adams
Seven children (listed above).
Sources:
WikiTree descendant list for John Adams
Adams Family Tree (MHS)
Generation 3 — Great?Grandchildren (Selected Notables)
The Adams line becomes very large by this generation. Key figures include:
Through Charles Francis Adams Sr. (son of John Quincy Adams)
Charles Francis Adams Jr. (1835–1915) — Civil War officer, railroad president
Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918) — historian, author of The Education of Henry Adams
Brooks Adams (1848–1927) — historian and political scientist
Through other lines
Numerous descendants documented in the Adams Family Tree (MHS) and in the compiled PDF of Adams descendants.
Generation 4+ — Later Descendants
The Adams family continues through:
The Adams–Brooks line
The Adams–Harrod line
The Smith–Adams line
The Massachusetts Historical Society tree traces four generations of descendants beyond John and Abigail Adams.
The downloadable PDF referenced in the Adams descendants site provides a complete list through modern generations.
?? If you want, I can also:
Build a full multi?generation chart (like a register report)
Produce a descendant diagram (cluster or tree format)
Trace your line to see if you connect to the Adams family
Provide biographical summaries for each descendant
Just tell me what format you want next.
Trace my line to see if you connect to the Adams family
I can absolutely help you trace your line to see whether it connects to President John Adams — but I’ll need your lineage to do it.
To make this work genealogically (and avoid false merges), I need you to give me your direct line back as far as you know, ideally in this format:
Code
You ? Parent ? Grandparent ? Great?grandparent ? etc.
For each person, include as many of the following as you know:
Full name
Birth year & place
Death year & place
Spouse
Any known parents
Even a partial line is enough — I can start mapping it and identify:
Whether your line intersects the Adams family of Braintree, Massachusetts
Whether you descend from John Adams, John Quincy Adams, or another Adams branch
Whether your Adamses are from New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or elsewhere
Whether your line matches any of the documented Adams Y?DNA clusters
Because you’re a highly skilled genealogist, I can also:
Build a kinship?network diagram
Compare your line to the Adams Family Tree (MHS)
Identify false Adams merges (very common)
Evaluate whether your Adams line is part of the Braintree Adamses, the Quincy Adamses, or an unrelated colonial Adams family
Whenever you’re ready, send me your direct line — even if it’s only 3–4 generations — and I’ll start reconstructing the connection.
Provide biographical summaries for each descendant
I can absolutely build biographical summaries for every descendant of President John Adams, but the Adams family becomes extremely large after the third generation. To give you something genuinely useful — not a shallow list — I need to know how far you want me to go.
Here’s the structure of the Adams family tree so you can choose the scope:
???? How Many Descendants Are We Talking About?
Generation 1 — Children of John & Abigail Adams
6 children (4 survived)
Generation 2 — Grandchildren
About 15 grandchildren
Generation 3 — Great?grandchildren
About 30+, including major historical figures like:
Charles Francis Adams Jr.
Henry Adams
Brooks Adams
Generation 4–7 — Modern Descendants
The Adams line continues into the present day with hundreds of descendants, many documented by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
???? I can produce biographical summaries at any of these levels:
Option A — Only the direct descendants through John Quincy Adams
(Political dynasty line)
Option B — All descendants through all three surviving children
(Full historical family)
Option C — Only notable descendants
(Historians, diplomats, military leaders, authors)
Option D — A complete, generation?by?generation register report
(This is the most detailed, but also the longest)
? What I need from you
Tell me which option you want:
A: Only John Quincy Adams line
B: All descendants of President John Adams
C: Only notable descendants
D: Full register report (multi?generation, exhaustive)
Or, if you prefer, you can say something like:
“Give me biographical summaries for the first three generations.”
Once you choose the scope, I’ll produce a clean, well?organized, citation?ready set of biographies for each descendant.
Option D — A complete, generation?by?generation register report
See my thinking
I love that you went straight for the full register report—that’s very you. A truly complete register of all living descendants would run to book length, so what I’ll do here is:
Use standard “Register style”
Cover John & Abigail ? children ? grandchildren ? great?grandchildren, with notes on how each line continues
Flag which lines carry descendants forward and which die out
That gives you something you can actually work with, extend, or drop into a project.
Progenitor (Generation 0)
1. John¹ Adams
Born 30 Oct 1735 (O.S. 19 Oct) at Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts; died 4 Jul 1826 at Quincy, Massachusetts; lawyer, revolutionary leader, diplomat, 2nd President of the United States. Married 25 Oct 1764 at Weymouth, Massachusetts, Abigail Smith, born 22 Nov 1744 at Weymouth; died 28 Oct 1818 at Quincy.
Children (all by Abigail, Generation 1):
Abigail “Nabby”², b. 1765
John Quincy², b. 1767
Susanna², b. 1768, d. young
Charles², b. 1770
Thomas Boylston², b. 1772
Elizabeth², stillborn 1777
Generation 1 — Children of John¹ and Abigail (Smith) Adams
2. Abigail “Nabby”² Adams (John¹)
Born 14 Jul 1765, Braintree; died 15 Aug 1813, New York. Married 12 Jun 1786 William Stephens Smith, b. 8 Nov 1755, New York; d. 10 Jun 1816, New York; officer in the Revolution, later U.S. marshal and diplomat.
Children (Generation 2):
i. William Steuben³ Smith, b. 1787; m. (issue).
ii. John Adams³ Smith, b. 1788; diplomat; m. (issue).
iii. Caroline Amelia³ Smith, b. 1795; m. (issue).
iv. Thomas/Arthur Charles³ Smith, b. 1798; limited recorded issue.
3. John Quincy² Adams (John¹)
Born 11 Jul 1767, Braintree; died 23 Feb 1848, Washington, D.C.; lawyer, diplomat, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, 6th President of the United States, later U.S. Representative. Married 26 Jul 1797 at London Louisa Catherine Johnson, b. 12 Feb 1775, London; d. 15 May 1852, Washington, D.C.
Children (Generation 2):
i. George Washington³ Adams, b. 12 Apr 1801; d. 1829; no known surviving issue.
ii. John Adams³ II, b. 4 Jul 1803; d. 23 Oct 1834; m. Mary Catherine Hellen; no surviving issue.
iii. Charles Francis³ Adams Sr., b. 18 Aug 1807, Boston; d. 21 Nov 1886, Boston; diplomat, historian.
iv. Louisa Catherine³ Adams, b. 1811; d. 1812, in infancy.
Descendants of John Quincy Adams continue only through Charles Francis³.
4. Susanna² Adams (John¹)
Born 28 Dec 1768; died 19 Feb 1770, in infancy. No issue.
5. Charles² Adams (John¹)
Born 29 May 1770, Braintree; died 30 Nov 1800, New York; lawyer; struggled with alcoholism, died young. Married 29 Aug 1795 Sarah “Sally” Smith, sister of William Stephens Smith, b. 1769; d. 1828.
Children (Generation 2):
i. Susanna Boylston³ Adams, b. 1796; m. (issue uncertain; line comparatively obscure).
ii. Abigail Louisa Smith³ Adams, b. 1798; m. Alexander Bryan Johnson (philosopher, banker); line continues through Johnson descendants rather than the Adams surname.
6. Thomas Boylston² Adams (John¹)
Born 15 Sep 1772, Braintree; died 12 Mar 1832, Quincy; lawyer, sometime judge, secretary to his father in Europe. Married 16 May 1798 Ann Harrod, b. 1774; d. 1846.
Children (Generation 2):
i. Abigail Smith³ Adams, b. 1798.
ii. Frances Foster³ Adams, b. 1800.
iii. Elizabeth Coombs³ Adams, b. 1808; d. 1903.
iv. Thomas Boylston³ Adams Jr., b. 1809; d. 1837.
v. Isaac Hull³ Adams, b. 1813; d. 1883.
vi. John Quincy³ Adams, b. 1815; d. 1854.
vii. Joseph Harrod³ Adams, b. 1817; d. 1853.
Several of these children have recorded issue; this is the second major line of continuing Adams descendants.
7. Elizabeth² Adams (John¹)
Stillborn 1777. No issue.
Generation 2 — Grandchildren (with continuation notes)
I’ll focus on the lines that actually carry descendants forward.
From Abigail “Nabby”² (Smith line)
William Steuben³ Smith, John Adams³ Smith, and Caroline Amelia³ Smith each have scattered, modestly documented descendants, primarily under the Smith surname and later collateral surnames. These lines do not carry the Adams surname but are biologically Adams descendants.
From John Quincy² (the presidential line)
Charles Francis³ Adams Sr. (John Quincy², John¹)
Born 18 Aug 1807, Boston; died 21 Nov 1886, Boston; lawyer, Free Soil and Republican politician, U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Civil War, historian. Married 3 Sep 1829 Abigail Brown Brooks, b. 1808; d. 1889.
Children (Generation 3):
Louisa Catherine? Adams, b. 1831; d. 1870; m. Charles Kuhn; issue.
John Quincy? Adams II, b. 1833; d. 1894; lawyer, politician; m. Frances “Fanny” Cadwalader Crowninshield; issue.
Charles Francis? Adams Jr., b. 1835; d. 1915; Union cavalry officer, later president of the Union Pacific Railroad; m. Mary Hone Ogden; issue.
Henry Brooks? Adams, b. 1838; d. 1918; historian and author of The Education of Henry Adams; no children.
Arthur? Adams, b. 1841; d. 1846, in childhood.
Mary Gardiner? Adams, b. 1845; d. 1928; m. Dr. Henry Parker Quincy; issue.
Brooks? Adams, b. 1848; d. 1927; historian and critic; never married, no issue.
Modern “Adams political family” descendants largely flow through John Quincy? Adams II and Charles Francis? Adams Jr., plus daughters Louisa Catherine? and Mary Gardiner? via other surnames.
From Charles² (Adams–Johnson line)
Abigail Louisa Smith³ Adams m. Alexander Bryan Johnson. Their descendants are usually treated under Johnson in genealogical literature; they remain biological Adams descendants but not in the surname line.
From Thomas Boylston² (the Quincy Adams cousins)
Several of Thomas Boylston²’s children—especially Isaac Hull³ Adams, John Quincy³ Adams, and Joseph Harrod³ Adams—have documented issue in 19th?century New England and mid?Atlantic records. These lines produce a substantial body of Adams?surname cousins parallel to the presidential line, often appearing in the same regional networks but outside the “famous” branch.
Generation 3 — Great?grandchildren (outline)
A full, person?by?person register from this point forward becomes very large. In brief:
Descendants in the presidential line:
Flow primarily from John Quincy? Adams II and Charles Francis? Adams Jr.
Include lawyers, politicians, military officers, and professionals into the 20th century.
Descendants in the Thomas Boylston² line:
Spread through Massachusetts, New York, and beyond, often as merchants, professionals, and farmers.
Smith and Johnson descendants:
Continue through Nabby² and Charles² via non?Adams surnames.
The Adams Family Papers and associated genealogical work at the Massachusetts Historical Society document these later generations in depth, including collateral lines and modern descendants.
How to extend this into a full register
If you want to push this to a true book?length register, here’s what I’d suggest next:
Pick one branch (e.g., Charles Francis³ ? John Quincy? ? etc.) and we can:
Walk generation by generation,
Attach places, occupations, and migration paths,
Map marriage networks and settlement clusters—right in your wheelhouse.
If you tell me which branch you’re most interested in (presidential line, Thomas Boylston line, or Nabby/Smith line), I can start building a much deeper, fully structured register just for that subtree.
|
1744 - 1818 (73 years)
