My Family Bible Wish List

I've been talking a lot about Family Bibles lately.  I thought I would wrap up the series with my Family Bible Wish List.  This list includes all the Family Bibles I wish I could get my hands on.  Most of them are for my brick wall ancestors.


My Family Bible Wish List

1) The Bible of John Edwards and Ann Van Schaick of Glen, Montgomery County, New York.

John Edwards was born 6 Jan 1792 in Germantown, Columbia County, New York and died 22 September 1877 in Glen, Montgomery County, New York. He was the son of William Edwards, originally from Wales and Christina Schmidt/Christine Smith. William and Christina are my biggest brick wall.  Family tradition said that John couldn't read or write but that his wife Ann Van Schaick could.  Perhaps they started a Family Bible record when they got married.  If so, I would really love to see it!

2) The Bible of Orange Hill and Semira Frizzell of the Hamlet of Delphi Falls, Town of Pompey, Onondaga County, New York.

Orange Hill was born 21 Feb 1806 and died 26 Dec 1882 in Pompey.  He was the son of Ensign Hill and Mary Hastings Kellogg.  I believe that Orange Hill was the father of my great great grandmother Charlotte Hill but I'm still looking for concrete proof.  Finding a Bible with their family records would be a big help.

3) The Bible of William Chandler Learned and Charlotte Hill of New York.

William and Charlotte were married on 12 July 1855 in Charlotte's hometown of Delphi.  William was a minister so it was very likely they had a Bible.  Charlotte died 25 Jan 1862 in Alden, Erie County, New York.  After Charlotte's death, William married twice more.  First to Francis Gilbert in 1864 and then to Adda O. Setchel in 1869.  His Bible could potentially contain all three wives and children.

4) The Bible of James Porter McClaren and his wife Pleasant Ann of Black Lick, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

James Porter McClaren was born 7 Feb 1821 in PA and died 10 Mar 1865 in Black Lick, PA.  His wife Pleasant Ann was born 1 Apr 1823 in Indiana County, PA and died 15 Jul 1902 in Black Lick, PA.  I have never been able to determine Pleasant Ann's maiden name.  Perhaps finding that Family Bible will help me break new ground with my ancestry.

If the genealogy elves are going to be generous this Christmas perhaps they will help me locate one or all of these Bibles.

Creating a Citation for a Family Bible

One of my goals this year is to become more comfortable with writing citations.  Citations for some documents like deeds or online census records are ones that I create fairly frequently.  There are always those more unique documents that come my way once in a blue moon. 

The Edwards Family Bible that I recently acquired is one example. I will have to carefully read the citation formula as presented in Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. I'm going to give it a whirl here on my blog so you can see what it looks like.  If I need to tweak it a bit let me know.

Explanations for citing information from a Family Bible can be found on pages 140-141 of Evidence Explained.

Jacob Sanders Glen Edwards, Family Bible Records, 1848-1908, The Holy Bible (Philadelphia: William W. Harding, 1867), "Marriages, Births and Deaths", Privately held by Marian Edwards Pierre-Louis, [Address for private use,] Massachusetts, 2011. [Bible was a gift of a gentleman from Long Island who held it his possession for the previous 30 years.  Originally a gift to J.S.G. Edwards from his mother in 1868. Entries with the exception of two fall after the publication date and seem to be individually written as they happened.]

Analyzing Records from Family Bibles

The other week I received an Edwards Family Bible in the mail from a complete stranger.  What a wonderful gift!  Now that the excitement has waned it's time to get down to the task of analyzing the Bible.

"Analyzing the Bible?," you say.  "Yes!"  Bibles must be analyzed so that we can determine the accuracy of the family information that is included.

Check For an Inscription

This Bible does contain an inscription that let's us know who owned the Bible and who gave it to him and when.

Jacob Sanders Glen Edwards

              Glen, N.Y.
A present from My Mother
1868

Jacob Sanders Glen Edwards is a known family member who was born 16 January 1847 in New York.  At the time he received this Bible he would have been 21 years old. Perhaps he received it for his birthday.

Check the Title Page for Publication Details

One of the most important parts about analyzing your family Bible is to check for the publication date.  That will give you a baseline against which to compare the handwritten dates.  Ideally all handwritten dates relating to family history should be later than the date of publication.  Also check the name and location of the publisher.  Was this a local publisher or did the Bible perhaps get brought over from the "old country?"

I don't know anything about this particular Bible publisher but it was printed in Philadelphia, PA.  It does not seem out of the ordinary for a New York family to have a Bible like this.

The Publication date of the Bible is 1867.  That is one year before the date of the inscription.  So we are off to a good start.

Where Will I Find the Family Information?

Mostly likely the family information will be on pre-printed form pages inserted between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Check the Table of contents if you have trouble locating it.

Check the Dates in Each Section of Family Information

Marriages

The first section that appears in this Bible is the page for Marriages.  One marriage is recorded.

J.S. Glen Edwards to Mary Putman Van Derveer
February 28th 1872 by Rev. F. V. Van
Vranken

We are off to a good start.  The only marriage recorded is that of the owner of the Bible and it was recorded when he married Mary Van Derveer, four years after receiving the Bible .

Births

There are two pages of births included with the Bible.  We run into a little bit of a hiccup on the first page.

J.S. Glen Edwards son of John V.S.
Edwards and Mary M. Edwards born
January 16" 1849.

Mary Putman Van Derveer daughter of
William and Elizabeth Putman Van Derveer
born June 1" 1848

These records are considered derivative (or secondary) evidence because they happened before the establishment of the family Bible and the two people were not consciously present at their own birth.  We can presume that they have it on good source that they know their own birthdays and parents.  So we will allow them the indulgence of including themselves in the Bible!  Indeed, if you didn't know who their parents were this could be just the place that you get that clue.

The second page of Births includes the two daughters of J.S.G. and Mary Edwards.  Interestingly enough it also includes two of their grandchildren, one born in 1907 and one born in 1908.  For people having difficulty tracing women an entry like this helps to reveal the names of the spouses and thus the daughers' married names.

Deaths

Only one death is recorded in this Bible.  

Mary P. Edwards, wife of J.S.G. Edwards
died April 1" 1909 aged 60 years & 10 mos.

It is for J.S.G. Edwards' wife.  He did not die until 18 March 1917 so we can presume (though not verify) that it was written by he himself.  

Review All the Handwriting

Next, check all the handwriting for all the entries.  Does it look like it was written at various times over the years with different pens?  Handwriting changes at least slightly over the years and gets less steady with age.  In contrast the handwriting may all be identical, with the same ink, strokes and weight.  That could suggest that someone sat down and entered it all at one time.  Ideally the entries will vary slightly and suggest that they were written at the time of each event.

Compare the Information to What You Already Know

Lastly, compare the handwritten information to what you already know about the family.  Do the names, dates and location fit with what you know about your ancestors?  Does any of the new information conflict with what you already have?  Conflicts of information are not bad. They should encourage you to work harder to understand why you might have conflicts.

All in all this is a great Bible with mostly contemporary information and I'm so happy to have it.

Tell me your stories from finding Family Bibles!  What did your Family Bibles reveal to you?

The Mystery Heirloom has Arrived!

The mystery heirloom sent by Good Samaritan Steve from Long Island has arrived!!

What could it be?

It is cleverly disguised as a Nike box!

I have to admit that I was so excited that I asked the postal clerk for some scissors and he helped me open the box right there in the post office!

Then we ease it open to reveal.....

A Family Bible!  Yay!

It has an inscription on the front!

It was a gift from his mother in 1868!

It even arrived with an old looking pressed flower and....

Family Records!! :)

The Bible reveals family members that I did not have recorded.  I'm off to a good start.  I'm going to enjoy going through each of the four pages of family history including births, deaths and marriages.

At first glance it doesn't appear like any brick walls are going to come tumbling down but I am so happy to have this item back in the Edwards family.

Thanks so much to Steve from Long Island! It's a wonderful, thoughtful thing you've done returning this Bible to the family from which it originated.

Clearly I am an Edwards family member but I thought I would mention that I am *really* an Edwards.  It's my maiden name and paternal line. And my biggest brick wall.  grrr :)