Rathbone Uncovered

[Steve Whitlock]

(06-16-2013 11:21 PM)chrishunter Wrote:  I've been researching the Rathbone family for about 10 years. There are a couple of descendants living in New York City. I haven't contacted any of them yet and I'm not sure if they are aware of this discovery yet.

(06-06-2013 07:16 AM)Hess1865 Wrote:  I wonder if any of Rathbone's descendants (if there are any still alive) knew the truth about the burial situation before Eva found this??

When you mention NYC descendants, are they from Henry Reed Rathbone, or other Rathbone lines? I did an mtdna project for Henry Reed Rathbone's maternal line and it appeared to me that there were no living descendants, but I was concentrating on mtdna. I would be interested in knowing if I missed any living descendants. We had to look to relatives to get 2 mtdna donors for the project.

That same mtdna project was used to verify that a supposed Lincoln artifact with President Lincoln's blood from his assassination was in actuality from Henry Reed Rathbone during his struggle with John Wilkes Booth which resulted in Henry's blood being spattered on Mary Lincoln's chair. I imagine any blood relics from the theater, not directly from Lincoln's person or bed across the street, will be Major Rathbone's. It seems Mr Lincoln didn't bleed that much at the theater, except into his clothing and what they used to carry him across the street.