On Tuesday, February 12, the nation celebrated the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. He was born over 200 years ago in a one-room log cabin near Hodgen’s Mill, Kentucky. He became the 16^th President of the United States.

More books have been written about him than any other human except Jesus Christ. Many new books about him have just recently hit the market. American History professors who teach or have taught at famous colleges, such as Oxford, have written most of the recent books and many of these historians have written more than one book. Harold Holzer of Rye, New York, is the author, co-author or editor of 33 books about Lincoln, including two new ones just released.

When I had my photography studio, a friend of mine was researching her family history and was writing a book, in which she wanted to include family photos. She came to me to do copies of these photographs for her book. She shared with me some of the work she had done on the history. One of the facts she unearthed was that one of her ancestors had been in prison, charged with taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. After much effort, she found an elderly aunt who had a Bible that was owned by the person who had been imprisoned. The Bible was marked and these markings were used to send code messages from the prison to persons on the outside. The Bible was printed in 1829.

The family had kept this Bible locked in a trunk and a secret about it for many years. The aunt was much embarrassed that a relative had had a part in this scheme. My friend was sworn to secrecy about the whereabouts of this Bible, even after so many years. She was only allowed to take some pictures of it and some of the pages. This Bible had a dark brown leather covering and was laced together with leather thongs.

Ah, the threads of life continue to hold or stay entwined, even after many years.