Timothy Lincoln Beckwith

Infobox Person
name = Timothy Lincoln Beckwith


imagesize = 100px
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birth_date = birth date and age|1968|10|14|mf=y
birth_place = Williamsburg, Virginia
death_date =
death_place =
occupation =
spouse =
parents = Annemarie Hoffman, father unknown
children =

Timothy Lincoln Beckwith (b. October 14, 1968) is the son of Annamarie Hoffman and once was thought to be the son of her husband Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the last descendant of Abraham Lincoln. However, a paternity case ruled that he was most likely not Beckwith's son. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Biography and Family Line of the Lincolns
url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/u/n/Terence-L-Duniho/GENE5-0003.html# |]

Timothy Beckwith was born on October 14, 1968 in Williamsburg, Virginia to Mrs. Annemarie Hoffman Beckwith and supposedly to Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. His mother grew up in Hanover, Germany, moved to America and became a student at the College of William and Mary. She married Beckwith in 1967. Six months after the marriage, Beckwith received a letter indicting that his wife was pregnant. However, Robert had had a vasectomy six years before he and Annemarie were wed. He visited his doctor and concluded that he was ‘completely sterile’.

Just before the baby was born, Robert urged his wife to list the baby’s father as unknown on the birth certificate and gave her $7,500 plus the hospital cost. However, when Timothy was born, she listed Robert as the father and gave the child the name Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, after his claimed father. Annemarie then returned to Europe with her son.

Robert filed divorce proceedings, but they were delayed by a countersuit held by Annemarie. In 1976, the District of Columbia Superior Court ordered Annemarie to return with her son, so that Timothy could take blood tests to determine if he was Beckwith's son. Annemarie refused to return to the United States and the Superior Court accordingly ruled her son was the product of an 'adulterous relationship'. However, since Timothy had not actually been proven to not be Beckwith's son, the Court said that the boy retained the right to present a future claim of being a Lincoln descendant, thereby inheriting the Lincoln estate.

Robert ‘Bud’ Lincoln Beckwith died in 1985 and Annemarie moved to West Berlin. By 1994, she was said to have remarried and was living somewhere in the United States. [The New Yorker article, " [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/02/28/1994_02_28_054_TNY_CARDS_000367434 Family Tree: LAST OF THE LINCOLNS] ", February 28, 1994, p. 54. ] Not much more is known of Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, but he is believed to be living in West Palm Beach, Florida. He apparently never has had his DNA tested to confirm his paternity.

References

Notes

* "Lincoln's Great-Great Grandchild Involved in Paternity Suit Here", Virginia Gazette, July 25, 1969.

External links

* [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/02/28/1994_02_28_054_TNY_CARDS_000367434 Abstract of New Yorker article on Timothy Beckwith]