Who Gets Dad's Old Anvil

Once both parents have died, the children have a big job ahead of them. It litterly can take years to wade through all the accumulated stuff. And the stuff might really be valuable (not just monetarily). The sentimental value of a certain item can help ease the lose of the loved one as family reminisces, or it can cause the dreaded family fight that keeps family members from talking to each other for years. An article written by Kelly Greene of the Wall Street Journal entitled, "The Pearls Are Mine!" gives some good suggestions for working through the mountain of stuff in an timely and friendly way.

Does a Lincoln still Live?

Obituary for Margaret Fristoe Beckwith
Margaret "Maggie" Beckwith, 87, a volunteer with the American Red Cross and the widow of President Abraham Lincoln's last heir, died March 10 of lung cancer at the Orchard, an assisted living facility in Warsaw, Va.

In 1950, she married James Poor Fristoe, an Air Force officer. That marriage ended in divorce. In 1979, she married Robert "Bob" Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the great-grandson of the president and the last Lincoln heir. She enjoyed accompanying her husband on Lincoln-related trips throughout the country and researching the family's heritage. Her husband, the grandson of Robert Todd Lincoln, died in 1985.

From the Washingtonpost Post Mortem by Joe Holley. (Taken from a Michael Beschloss article in the New Yorker 1994)

Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was President Lincoln's great-grandson and was thought to be the last Lincoln heir when he died in 1985.

Some people think that a Lincoln heir survives.

Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was married three times and claimed that he had no heirs. His second wife claimed otherwise. His third wife found out she was pregnant six months after the wedding, but Beckwith had had a vesectomy.

They divorced in 1976 where a trial was set in motion to determine whther the boy Timothy Lincoln Beckwith was a leigtimate Lincoln heir. He was seven at the time and stood to inherit more than $10,000,000. The boys mother left for Europe and refused to return. The divorce was granted and the court ruled that the child was the product of an "adulterous relationship." The judge said that another court would have to rule whether young Timothy could still seek the Lincoln fortune.

When Beckwith died in 1985, the three groups that were to inherit his millions -- Iowa Wesleyan College, the American Red Cross and the First Church of Christ, Scientist -- were worried about Timothy Beckwith, then 17 years old. The groups made him an offer -- the teenager said yes, and with that the "Lincoln family tree withered into history."
Wickipedia article here
Lincoln Family Tree Here,

Geneology

Estate Records may Reveal Previously Unknown Family Members

by Dee Gibson-Roles Asheville Citizen-Times

Estate and probate records are some of the most valuable documents to a genealogist. These records often contain information that can be found nowhere else.