Obadiah and Katherine Holmes had nine known children, one of whom, the first John, died in England in 1633, with the remainder growing to maturity.
Rhode Island Deputy Governor and Chief Justice John Gardner was a great grandson of Holmes, as was Deputy Governor Elisha Brown, but his best known descendant was United States President Abraham Lincoln, whose connection with Holmes was published by J. T. Holmes in his 1915 genealogy of the family.