TriCity Genealogical Society Assists At Lincoln Event

Kennewick, Washington’s MidColumbia Library is hosting the traveling exhibit of “Lincoln – The Constitution and the Civil War.” Opening festivities included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, speeches, and prerecorded documentaries about President Abraham Lincoln and how the United States Constitution was deeply examined and questioned during the Civil War.

TCGS members worked with the MC Library to have on-site genealogy help for several days during the exhibit. Thanks to TCGS member Cody Allen for these pictures: 

Margie Beldin and Dan Metzger

John Covey, Susan Faulkner, Cody Allen 

Susan Faulkner and Dan Metzger

Along with these opening ceremonies, the TriCity Genealogical Society was invited to host a table. This allowed members of the society to interact with the public and discuss the study of history from a family historian’s interest. The TriCity Genealogical Society had many handouts available, one of them included links to Civil War websites. In addition to handouts other visuals were created. Using a spin from “Who Do You Think You Are” a notebook was also made available for patrons to look through that showed Abraham Lincoln’s relationships to six celebrities. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln is related to Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, and Mitt Romney? Of course these relationships are X cousin to Y removed relationship. The closest related celebrity currently alive is Tom Hanks who is Abraham Lincoln’s 3^rd cousin 4 times removed.

There was also an hourglass family history chart showing four generations of Abraham Lincoln’s ancestors as well as four generations of Abraham Lincoln’s descendants. There are currently no living direct descendants of Abraham Lincoln. Or are there? Yes, even the Lincolns have non ending drama. Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was married for a short time to a lady by the name of Anna Marie Hoffman. As divorce proceedings were in place, Anna announced that she was pregnant with Abraham Lincoln’s only great-great-grandson. Robert countered that her announcement was a fraud since he had undergone vasectomy surgery years before their marriage. The young Beckwith child was born, and the estate of Abraham Lincoln paid him dearly to if he (or his mother) agreed to not publicly claim any heritage.

If you get a chance to drop by this wonderful traveling exhibit, don’t miss it. It will be on display at the MidColumbia Library on Union Street until September 2^nd.

(Article by Susan Faulkner.)