Family Bibles...........

[Bob Wright]

Not many folks record data in their big family Bibles anymore. I have two that belonged to my mother, and she kept birth dates in the record section. Not only did she record the birth date of each of us children, but also the delivering doctor and hospital, if there was one, and the day of the week and time of birth.

When my Dad applied for Social Security, he had no birth certificate, but his father's family Bible was accepted as providing his birth date. He simply carried the old leather bound, yellowed paged Bible to the Social Security office, and they accepted that.

My mother in law's Bible also contained newspaper clippings, some of which we have no idea what significance they held for her.

Interesting bits of history contained in them.

Bob Wright

 

[ChiefMuzz]

My daughter was given my Great Grandmothers Bible for her 8th birthday. My great grandmother was a student of scripture and her bible is filled with her notes and thoughts. It was a bible she purchased on a trip to Jerusalem she took with my great grandfather in the 1970s.
My dad has a bible that two older gentleman shared in the early 1900s. They would swap it every 6 months at conferences and write notes back and forth to each other on certain scriptures. It's just littered with interesting insight.
I also have a couple historical and scriptural books from my great great grandfather.

 

[SAJohn]

Those family bible's can still be used as proof of citizenship.

 

[GP100]

My family had no such book..

But my father did have "the bottle of faith" as he called it..

It was a 1 gallon jug of Gallo wine that was always sitting in the kitchen corner near the fridge..

 

[Crazy Horse]

A single page from a family bible linked our family back to Mississippi and the family we descended from. It later was accepted as proof when I was accepted into the Sons of the American Revolution.

 

[contender]

It used to be that the family bible was the way personal family records were kept.

Miss Penny took her mom's hand-me-down family bible to be restored last year. It is very old, had a lot of stuff in it,,, and was coming apart. A professional bible restoration was done & it's AMAZING what they were able to do.

 

[Fox Mike]

My younger brother has our old bible. It is to be passed it along to the next youngest Mitchell in line when he goes, which would be my eldest son.

 

[ChiefMuzz]

I actually have a full 300 page book of my family history that was put together by a historian in our family. Dating all the way back to the 1500s.

 

[WIL TERRY]

Our famly history starts October 13, 1306.
That is the day the French king slaughtered the Knights Templer
That is my birth date 702 years later.
I am a direct decendent of Charlemagne.
BIG deal, so are 5,000,000 other folks !!!
And so it went...

 

[fiasconva]

My wife has her grandmother's that goes back 100 years or so. It mentioned relatives that she didn't even know she had. It has all the dates of weddings, births, and deaths that her grandmother thought were important enough to record.

 

[protoolman]

Pretty sure I'm a direct descendant of Adam from Noah's line.

 

[GP100]

It used to be that the family bible was the way personal family records were kept.

Miss Penny took her mom's hand-me-down family bible to be restored last year. It is very old, had a lot of stuff in it,,, and was coming apart. A professional bible restoration was done & it's AMAZING what they were able to do.

I'm glad they were able to save it for you.. I have never seen such a bible.. But have heard people speak of them.. I guess that's how they kept records in the 30's and 40's? But I myself have no such artifact in my family tree.. At least that I know of..

But then, my family tree had a lot of root rot and fungus in it anyway.. My parents were filth that wouldn't know what a bible was for if it smacked them in the face..

I have seen book restorers do some amazing things with books you'd swear were done for.. And I've also seen some restorers that were rank amateurs at it..

Glad you guys found a good one.. A piece of history has been restored.. And family history is important.. You gotta know where you've been, to know where your going I've always said..

 

[Bob Wright]

GP100 said:

But have heard people speak of them.. I guess that's how they kept records in the 30's and 40's?

More like, in my family anyway, the 'Fifties and 'Sixties, the Eighteen Fifties, I mean. The Wright family settled in Tennessee in 1828.

Bob Wright

 

[Colonialgirl]

It used to be that the family bible was the way personal family records were kept.

Miss Penny took her mom's hand-me-down family bible to be restored last year. It is very old, had a lot of stuff in it,,, and was coming apart. A professional bible restoration was done & it's AMAZING what they were able to do.

What was the cost on that restoration?
I'm curious because I inherited the OLD family Bible (Grandmother or Great Grandfather's); It has the clasp on the front and a load of family history in it, but the back has come apart from the front cover.

 

[GP100]

GP100 said:

But have heard people speak of them.. I guess that's how they kept records in the 30's and 40's?

More like, in my family anyway, the 'Fifties and 'Sixties, the Eighteen Fifties, I mean. The Wright family settled in Tennessee in 1828.

Bob Wright

Wow...

That's a long history your family has there in Tennessee.. Do you know much of the history along the way? Such as, did anyone from that period keep a Diary/Journal that perhaps gives you an insight to the daily life goings on in the family at all?

I have no such history on my family.. I know nothing of them really.. What little I do know, I've written in my book here on the board.. Which isn't much at all..

But that is so cool you have that information, and can trace it back that far..

 

[Bob Wright]

GP100 said:

But have heard people speak of them.. I guess that's how they kept records in the 30's and 40's?

More like, in my family anyway, the 'Fifties and 'Sixties, the Eighteen Fifties, I mean. The Wright family settled in Tennessee in 1828.

Bob Wright

Wow...

That's a long history your family has there in Tennessee.. Do you know much of the history along the way? Such as, did anyone from that period keep a Diary/Journal that perhaps gives you an insight to the daily life goings on in the family at all?

I have no such history on my family.. I know nothing of them really.. What little I do know, I've written in my book here on the board.. Which isn't much at all..

But that is so cool you have that information, and can trace it back that far..

Most of the stories I know were told to me by my Mother, but Dad did relate a couple, too. My Mother's side of the family is well documented to around 1100 A.D. or so. Her family name was West, then became Parker, and finally Williams. The Wright family is not so well documented until around 1828.

My Mother did write down her memories shortly before her death at age 102. Both my parents were born and raised in middle Tennessee, Dad being born in 1891, and Mother in 1896; they were married in Nashville Tennessee in 1915.

Bob Wright

 

[RSIno1]

I have the Bible of my 3rd great grandparents. It's missing the covers and written on the first page is "survived the flood of 185?". The other family Bible I know about was donated to the Midland MI Historical Society. It has dates in it but some are wrong having been added by the second wife she wasn't sure of the birth dates of the older kids.

I am a direct decendent of Charlemagne.
BIG deal, so are 5,000,000 other folks !!!
And so it went...

Yep - once you find a gateway ancestor you end up related to all the incestious royal houses of Europe.