Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/William Wallace Lincoln


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Ks0stm (T•C•G•E) 06:41, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

William Wallace Lincoln

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Fails WP:BIO; he was an 11 year old boy with no notable contributions whatsoever. Notability is not inherited. Kbabej (talk) 22:20, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Washington, D.C.-related deletion discussions. Kbabej (talk) 22:26, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Kbabej (talk) 22:26, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Illinois-related deletion discussions. Kbabej (talk) 22:26, 9 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Robert Todd Lincoln was the only really notable child of Abraham Lincoln. I propose that we merge William Wallace Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, and Tad Lincoln into a single article, Descendants of Abraham Lincoln. bd2412  T 22:50, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Merge as per bd2412. Power~enwiki (talk) 23:49, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Merge somewhere. Bondegezou (talk) 14:24, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep - Willie has in depth coverage in many biographies of Lincoln as well as in scholarship on white house life (and deaths). When people are known and famed only because they are related to another person, it is important not to confuse a dictionary definition of "notability" and WP:N. Similarly, WP:INHERIT doesn't say that notability shouldn't be established using a biography of a relative or another person. Also, an article on Willie and Eddie might be a bit OR, as their lives didn't really overlap and they are often discussed separately, except sometimes when scholarship discussed the effect on their deaths on their parents. Smmurphy(Talk) 14:45, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Weak Keep This is quite an interesting case as a lot has been written on Willie Lincoln by academics and other authors, but probably only because he was a president's son. However his death is (unsurprisingly) said to have had an impact on Lincoln's presidency. Equally his and Tad's lives in the White House do seem to have attracted much comment by contemporaries of Lincoln. Whether this merits a separate article for Willie, or the material could simply be included in another article is a difficult call, but I would lean towards it. Dunarc (talk) 18:54, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep. Sometimes influence goes beyond professional accomplishments - awards or records or publications or whatever. Sometimes a life is simply lived, and that life itself has notability because of its influence on others or on the culture of the day.  Willie's life and his death had an influence on the President of the United States, on his conduct of the war, on the First Lady of the United States.  He's been the subject of stories and articles and children's books.  This reminds me a bit of Christopher McCandless, a person who, during his life, did nothing notable in the eyes of the world.  But then in January 1993 a writer called Jon Krakauer wrote about McCandless in Outside magazine, and then in 1997 he wrote the book about McCandless, Into the Wild.  Then there's the film based on Krakauer's books and also a documentary about Mccandleuss. So yeah...I think McCandless is notable and that Willie Lincoln is notable. Shearonink (talk) 05:30, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep. There are many, many references to Willie Lincoln and his brothers in secondary sources. In life and in death, Willie and Tad - and to a lesser extent, Willie - strongly influenced President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. If notability is reduced merely to professional accomplishments, we'd be deleting Mary Todd Lincoln as well, and that would be ridiculous. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.8.174.212 (talk) 17:21, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Weak keep I think Willie's death (sadly) is the most impact reason to keep the article. The effect his death had on Lincoln is quite note worthy. I think that the death of a child has on a sitting president. That being said it might be better if the article was expanded to include information on how his death impacted the remainder of Lincoln's presidency. --Cameron11598 (Talk) 21:53, 15 July 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.