Who should the Family Bible be handed down to?

[julianb]

I'm the youngest in my family and wonder who will run off with the family photo album, when the older generation are no more. I imagine my siblings will expect to take them as they are older, but they show no interest in the family history and have no one to pass them onto either. May be next time I see the photo album I should squirrel some way!

Going slightly off-topic, but why not ask to borrow the photos and scan them?  (But remember to scan them using colour settings if you think you might need any restored on here)

JULIAN

[pipkim]

Funds are tight, so a scanner will have to wait. Shame I didn't start this genealogy lark before I had kids, as I was a graphic designer with a variety of scanners to choose from as well as good printers etc.

My mum was going to stick the album in the post, I was horrified and imagined them going missing for good  .  I will have to take my chances and leave them for another time.

Pipkim 

[wardyfam]

I was recently given an old family bible by a friend who had bought a box full of oddments at a local boot sale...included with the bric a bac was the bible.

To cut a long story short, I traced the family who were all detailed in pencil in the front and back of the bible on the internet, then put out feelers on GR for anyone who might know the family.
Within a week I had a reply from a man who thought he knew the family.
We confirmed through e-mails and scans that they were the family he knew about, who were in fact the ancesters of his sons girlfriend who he was in the process of doing her family tree for.

The outcome is...this precious heirloom and all the records that I found of the people and their ancesters, which means nothing to anyone else, has now been relocated with it's rightful family in Liverpool instead of being wrecked by being passed from pillar to post via boot sales, or languishing in someones home who know nothing about the people within.

At the moment I am in the procees trying to help someone find the sender of a post card that was sent to a young lady in London in 1917, who surprisingly I found, was related to me via my grandmother.
It gives you a good feeling to bring people of the past alive, and to take a peek into their life, and hopefully bring joy to their family in the process, if they can be found....fingers crossed.

[Keith Sherwood]

Wardyfam,
Now THAT'S what I call a job well done!  I hope everyone you managed to reconnect through this old Bible were appreciative of all your efforts...
Very best wishes,
keith

[wardyfam]

Hi Keith,
I'm pleased to say they were over the moon to have it back in the fold,

My daughter. who also is another family history nut saw a beautiful 1800's family photograph album with floral decoration on ebay and was so taken with it that she decided to bid for it...luckily she won the bid It went for what I would say was a pittance for such a beautiful heirloom.

She also traced the family on the internet and gathered the records about them, she then, out of curiousity, made a public tree on Ancestry.co.uk linking the people in the album to see if she would have anyone contact her about it. She was then shocked and surprised to hear from the daughter of an elderly lady who's belonged to that same family tree. The album it seems, should have been passed down to her.

The lady who contacted her and and her mum had emigrated, and now live in Perth Australia, and according to the daughters mum, the album had been in the safe keeping for many years with her mums aunt.
When the aunt died, her step-daughter didn't know what to do with it, so it was effectively thrown aside and taken away with all her step mums possessions, probably in a house clearance. Which is how it must have ended up on ebay.

That album is now in Perth Australia...my daughter made no money on it, in fact she lost money...as all that was paid to her was, the p&p which the daughter paid and £25 towards the initial purchase....but like me, she was just happy to know it was where it belongs...with it's family.

My daughter received a beautiful letter thanking her and has kept in touch ever since....and all this was thanks to the person who had diligently put all the names, dates and spouses names beneath the photos all those people in the album over a 100 years ago, and who gave my daughter all the information she needed to trace the descendants of those people.

My advice to anyone who has a bible or photo album, or anything connected to a family that doesn't belong in your family. If it has names and dates in...try and trace them, and  try to get them back to their rightful family...it really makes you feel good about yourself, and it brings such joy to others.

Pat xx

[Keith Sherwood]

Pat,
Hear hear! to everything you say, and another excellent story about reuniting a particular family with something - the family bible, or indeed a family photograph album - that ought to have been treasured and passed on without interruption within that family...
keith

[loo]

This is indeed an inspiring story!
I have recently learned that there is or was a family bible in my family which dated back to the 1700s.  I don't know anything about its whereabouts beyond the late 19thC, and the line that had it may have died out, but it certainly gives me a new incentive to pursue that line for modern descendants!

[gazania]

Hi all,

This post has made me start thinking about the bibles and other family papers and their distribution after I go.  They came to me when I cleaned our my parents' house after their deaths.  They belong to three of my ggrandparents. Some have come via the eldest daughter route.  In another case the copy of "Pilgrim's Progess" containing the family details was brought to Australia at migration and seemed to progress through the family via sisters (my g Aunts) then by default to my father as he was the last of his generation.

Now the problem I have is that my sister and I have sons.  The only granddaughters so far are mine, one aged 20 and the other 3. 

There are heaps of other relatives to whom I have passed on the information.  I think I shall have to have a talk with my sons and their wives soon. Luckily all are interested but leave the responsibility to me.

The records of one branch of the family were deposited in a University Library as they have some historical significance.  It caused some anger as no one else was consulted at the time.  I know they are well housed but involves costly trip by all relatives to view them.  Remembering my grandmother so well she would have been so upset to know that her personal letters to my grandfather are on ready access and have been cited in publications. She apparently burned grandfather's letters just before she died so no one else could read them.  I don't know how hers escaped but I suspect she did not think hers were important.  Another generation who do not know the participants may not understand the sensitivity involved in personal family papers.

I think it is time for OH & me to dispose of our letters gathering dust in the garage! Gazania

[oisinh1]

Hi everyone,
Its great to here how family bibles have helped alot of people with their ancestry!
My great-grandmother had (apparently!) a very detailed family bibl;e with the details of her mothers family and of her own children. So it seems to me that in our family it was passed through the eldest daughter.
But then the bible passed to my grandfathers brother. He refused to give the Bible to my grandfather who cherished all bibles with great care!
One day my grandfathers brother was drunk and his little cottage caught fire. My grandfather rescued his brother from the doorway of the housebut unfortunately the bible was destroyed!

If only my great-uncle had given my grandfather the bible?

Best Wishes
Oisín