(NYTIMES) - Mr Robert Russell Crans Jr is storing a bounty of items once owned and touched by President Abraham Lincoln and his family that represent a time in US history and politics most can read about only in history books. Through hundreds of years, the Lincoln personal items have been passed down through generations of family members. Mr Crans is adopted, but his mother's stepfather Robert Lincoln Beckwith is the last known blood relative of the Lincoln family. So he has taken some of these items to market, including a fan owned by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln when she was in the White House; a sterling silver ladle from the wife of Robert Todd Lincoln, a son of the President and Mary Todd Lincoln; and a portrait of the First Lady's half-sister. They are among hundreds of presidential artefacts being sold in an online bidding that started this month in celebration of Presidents Day at RR Auction, an auction house in Boston. Auctions like this one open up a market to people who want to sell the historical items they have owned for decades and for presidential collectors who are eager to own a piece of US history. Examples include a lottery ticket from 1768 signed by the first p...