I had an odd question pop into my mind, but don’t have the first clue where to check out for an answer.
John Wilkes Booth was one of a family of famous actors before he became more famous as Lincolns assasain. From what I’ve read, I don’t think that he had any children, but what became of the rest of his famous family? Did they continue to act without a problem? Did their children and grandchildren take to the stage? Or did the association of the Lincoln assasination destroy them as well?
Some Booths did live on after John Wilks committed murder.
But I urge you not to follow up on this. The other members were completely unconnected with his crime, & they do not deserve having their lives turned upside-down.
You see, there are people on this Board, lots of people, who are sharp enough to find the Booths. Some could do it in hours.
But just because you can do a thing, doesn’t mean you should do that thing.
These people have been abused, shamed & humiliated for generations. How many savage beating have they taken over the years? Why dredge this up?
Don’t ask this.
I beg my fellow Dopers not to answer it. It would be unethical, and Knowledge without Ethics is null and void.
Um…I think you’re overreacting here a bit. I didn’t get the idea that Eirik was planning on paying a visit to the Booth descendants and giving them hell over what John Wilkes Booth did.
It’s also not my responsibility what he does with this knowledge.
Google “Edwin Booth descendants” and you’ll find a link to a book called “Edwin Booth: A Bio-Bibliography” which includes genealogy. A friend of mine named Booth (apparently no relation) found a book called IIRC “The Mad Booths of Maryland” to be quite interesting.
What the hell? Have you any evidence whatsoever that any currently surviving Booth descendants have been beaten over this? Or humiliated?
Both’s Father had a wife when he ran off to America and lived with Booth’s Mother and had a bunch of kids: the ones who lived to adulthood Junius Brutus Jr., b. 1821; Rosalie, b. 1823 Edwin, b. 1833; John Wilkes, b. 1838; and Joseph Adrian, b. 1840.
After April 1865:
Junius (the Dad) was dead.
Edwin was then the most famous actor, one of the top in the U.S. He wrote an open letter of apology for JWB’s actions and when he next acted, in Hamlet in 1866, he was given a standing ovation. He toured until his death in 1892 and supposedly would not let JWB’s name be mentioned in his presence (sure its a bit overly dramatic but his bro shot Lincoln!!)
Here is his entry in Bartlebys
http://www.bartleby.com/65/bo/Booth-Ed.html
Bartlebeys says Juniuis jr. was a sucessful theater manager
I don’t know about Joseph or the girls.
There was a half brother, Richard, who was actuallly Booth Sr. only offspring while he was maried to the mother (who he abandoned in England). he was a teacher living in England in the CW & presumably unaffected by the scandal.
John Wilkes Booth’s older brother Edwin was widely regarded as one of the greatest–if not the greatest–American actors of his time.
Following Lincoln’s assassination he withdrew from public performance until the following year. His return to the stage was considered a triumph, and if there were people hostile to him because of his brother, they were a decided minority. His career continued successfully for decades. There was a film about the family (called, IIRC, The Magnificent Booths) in the 1950s in which Richard Burton played Edwin. It appears to have been accurate, at least in so far as it depicted Edwin as being able to persevere in his career.
An odd footnote of history which is often cited in Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not-type features: Edwin Booth was credited with saving the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert. He caught him as he was falling off of a train platform.
It appears that members of the Booth family did not feel compelled to change their names. This was not, apparently, the case with relatives of Leon Czolgocz, the assassin of William McKinley. Then again, Booth is a sort-of common name, whereas a person named Czolgocz probably found him or herself continually asked if they were related to the Czolgocz. I expect too a lot of Americans with the name would feel inclined anyway to pick something which was easier to pronounce.
Last year I met a woman who was married to a descendant of the assassin’s cousin. She advised me that the name is pronounced “chole-gotch”.
I’m sorry if I seemed to be prying into current events, but I was more curious if the family of actors survived at the time, and if their early decendents. I doubt that anyone from that line is a well known actor today, since that would seem to be information known already (even if the actors name is different)
I was also curious because the assasination of Lincoln destroyed several lives that were not directly associated with the conspiracy but were implicated nontheless. Offhand, I can think of the owners of Ford’s Theather, who lost their business, and Dr. Mudd, who treated Boothe at the time but is unlikely to have known that Lincoln was dead, much less that he was the assasin.
By extension, I was curious what happened to the famous family once their progeny because infamous, and did that carry over to their early decendents.
To be clear, I have no interest in current decendents. I am not even mildly curious as to what happened to the family after, say, 1900, when flames of passion about the event would have died down, and most about anyone who was alive at the time had passed on.
Don’t forget Powers, or Shirley! 
I just thought I’d mention this statue of Edwin Booth which is situated in Gramercy Park in New York City. My Booth friend and I visited the park when we were in NYC in April and were fortunate enough to meet someone who let us in the park (it’s private and gated) to allow us to get a better look at the statue. It was the one thing my friend wanted to see while we were there.
If anyone’s even the slightest bit interested in seeing my pictures of the statue, post here and I’ll scan them.
Sam Mudd may not have been an active member in the conspiracy, but he was no wronged innocent. Mudd had met with Booth and several of the other assassins on several occasions prior to the day of Lincoln’s murder. One of the conspiracy members stated that they had placed supplies in Mudd’s home and planned on using it as a hiding place after their crimes. So it was no accident that Booth went to Mudd for treatment and a place to hide.
Later when Mudd was questioned by investigators, he lied and claimed he didn’t know Booth and couldn’t identify the man he had treated. He also falsely claimed he hadn’t known Lincoln was dead and concealed some information he had about where Booth had gone.
Granted however, none of the assassins ever explicitly stated that they had told Mudd about their plans. And with Booth dead, Mudd was the only witness to what the two of them talked about following Lincoln’s assassination.
Still another generation of Booths (I love my theater encyclopedia!):
Junius Brutus, Jr. (1821-83) married three times and begat Sydney Barton Booth (1873-1937) who was also a successful actor. Sydney’s elder brother, whom my encyclopedia does not name, shot himself and his wife, so JW wasn’t the only murderer in the family.
Sydney Barton Booth married twice and had a daughter named Edwina, but there’s no mention of what happened to her.
Junius Brutus Booth?