RootsChat.Com
Family History Documents and Artefacts => Family Bibles => Topic started by: Keith Sherwood on Friday 04 March 05 16:29 GMT (UK)
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There's recently been discussion on my mother's side of the family about who the Family Bible should be handed down to in the next generation, by right. I have heard that the eldest daughter of each generation is entitled to it, though that of course would mean that the bible would pass out of the male line.
In our family we have a Genevan Bible that first seems to appear in 1613. At some stage in its career it went to Australia, but now is back in England.
Can anyone in the family lay claim to the Family Bible?
Keith
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Hi Keith,
I always thought it went to the eldest son ?
There is supposedly one in my Mother in Laws family, that went to her brother
and now his son has it - as no-one has seen the son for years, I wrote to his
sister asking about it - no reply !
My own thoughts would be that whoever is now interested in the family history
should automatically lay claim to the bible, especially if you belong to rootschat...............
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Sandra, Have you ever tried wrestling the family bible off whoever has it at the present moment in time? If it's extremely old, maybe perceived to be worth a bit, it can be extremely difficult negotiating even a brief peep at it...!
But it would be interesting to hear how other families have managed it. (Passing it down through the generations, not fighting over it, I mean...)
Keith
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Hi Keith
I don't know the answer to your question but in lots of the old wills that I've seen, personal effects were often left to daughters. However, probably even this is variable county to county and dependant on the decade/origin.
At least you've got the information from it :D
A very interesting topic!
Best wishes
Casalguidi
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My second cousin as in her possession a family
bible which as passed down the maternal side
of the family.
I suppose this is so the family links can still be
found i.e. The woman usually changes her name
on marriage.
Jinks
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Hi, Jinks,
That's a very interesting thought, about the changes in surname at marriage being recorded in this way through a handing-down of the Bible.
Just by chance this very week a cousin of mine has had a chance to look at our family Bible after an absence of 27 years, and it seems that somehow the first flyleaves are missing and much of the vital information that was supposed to be there in 1978 is now missing. I'll hopefully get to see it at Easter now - its a 1597 Genevan Bible, apparently.
Keith
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I have two family bibles given to me by my great aunt who died in 2000. She was the last surviving sibling from a family of originally 7 children - my Nan was her sister.
In my family it was easy for my great aunt who to decide to give the bibles to! - My Nan had two sons, my Dad and my uncle who are both alive and well. Then there was me - an only child - and my cousin, again an only child. He has no interest whatsoever in family history so I was the lucky one ;D ;D
They are wonderful bibles. All the births and deaths are recorded in the back, and tucked amongst the pages were newspaper cuttings, a couple of obits, 3 funeral cards and some photos :D
Jan
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Fascinating to read all that, Jan, about your own Bibles.
There's actually a bit of a hiatus going on with our family at the moment, as the Bible that is meant to have the names Crudde, Creed and Gurner - and is supposed to have been handed down within the family since 1613, has been unearthed and looked at for the first time for 26 years, and although I personally have not yet had the chance to look at it, none of the scribblings it now contains have the slightest bearing on our family, and also several pages at the front are now missing.
I'm wondering about some kind of skulduggery of the worst sort, and will soon be down to London to look at certain family wills, etc. to try and make sense of it all...
Watch this space...
Keith
p.s. If anyone does come across a very old Bible with the names Crudde, Creed and Gurner in its flyleaves, please let me know. (Could some naughty person have swapped it...??)
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Keith,
I don't know how lucky I am ;D ;D ;)
Jan
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If its any help, I spoke to the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies about our family Bible (with regard to tracing some of the names therein) and was told that "... historically family Bibles are passed down through the eldest daughter."
Their website is: www.ihgs.ac.uk - you can e-mail them questions.
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Very interesting link, Mogsmum,
And nice to see this thread twitching back to life after an eighteen month dormancy. By the by, I've recently been doing a little family research for two friends of mine, and both coincidentally have family bibles dating from the 1820's, which thankfully confirm what I managed to unearth for them in my local record office - plus the added fine details that only a family bible often contains...
Very best wishes,
keith
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Don't know the right answer - but to the eldest daughter (me) - it seems like the best one as I'm the one doing research. However, in our family, it seems to be the old rule of possession is 9/10th of the law. This includes my younger sister and several cousins who have most of the family documents.
At least, I can borrow and scan the information from my sister. But would love to see the info from my family line held by my cousins.
Best wishes to all and a good year of research ahead in 2007 for everyone. RootsChat.com proves that sharing is the only way. RedFox :D
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Hear, Hear to all that, Redfox!
keith
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Well, I got my mother's parents' one. I was the youngest grandchild - Mum was the youngest daughter. I cherish it and am the only one of my generaltion who has followed up the history.
Gadget
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Gadget: The important thing is that you are interested in following up on the family history. Both you and Keith have "made my day". You have the right attitude about family. It's important to talk to as many of your elders as possible, even if they aren't interested. You never know who might drop a hint for you to follow. I did, but now I'm almost the eldest and have almost no one in the family but my mom's sisters on her side. But no one on my dad's side. RedFox :D
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What is nice, Redfox, is that some of the next generation are interested (some nearly as old as me because of the large family) and because of my persistence and website, I'm getting feedback that way now.
Follow all avenues,ask lots of questions and be a lateral thinker :)
Happy Holidays :)
Gadget
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Gadget - sounds like you have it all in hand. Enjoy your holidays. RedFox :)
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I think the definitive answer to this question must be summed up by looking around my office this morning and noting the conspicuous absence of male colleagues - all of whom appear to have realised that, (with only a miserly 364 days notice since the last one), Christmas Day is only 4 days away and they've taken the day/morning off to panic buy something totally inappropriate and useless for their mothers, wives and girlfriends. The same mothers, wives and girlfriends who've had their presents bought and wrapped for weeks.
And you wonder why Bibles are handed to down to daughters? :D :D
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There are no such items in my family, so I have no clues from experience. If I did have one, I would give it to an archive if they were interested in it, where it can be preserved with appropriate temperature controls, with a proviso that it be made accessible to descendants or family's researchers.
To me, daughters make sense precisely because women typically lose their surnames on marriage. With a family Bible, you retain a record of women's lines which would be very difficult to duplicate through research.
However, nowadays records are much easier to trace, due to civil registration etc., so I think it should go to the eldest female who is actually interested in its contents and in sharing the information in it. Failing that, a male.
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All very interesting, and the definitive answer on all this probably would be derived from an amalgamation of these views.
Now, Mogsmum, where's that piece of paper on which I've written a list of possible Christmas presents I've still got to go out and buy for my mother and daughter and...! (That's one theory I'm not going to argue over, but you may well get a few male Rootschatters coming at you now...)
keith
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Gee Keith...did Christmas sneak up on you? Small hint for the future....it's the same date every year .......December 25....just keep saying that to yourself .... December 25, December 25, December 25.......because the day will change and the year will change and we wouldn't want you to be unprepared again. (men are so easily confused )
And I definitely think that family bibles should go to the oldest daughter because then I would have my families.....well, once my mother gave it to my older sister and I wrestled her to the ground for it.........well, worth any jail time involved
dollylee
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As the youngest daughter of the youngest daughter, I must protest, dollylee :D
I have possession :)
Gadget
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I'm an only daughter, an only child, so I was the lucky one ;)
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Well thanks to this thread, I now know why the family bible came down the family the way it did, despite bachelors, spinsters and only children, it has meandered down through the females of the family to lucky me ;D
Due to this meandering, I have the maiden names of some of the women, I probably wouldn't otherwise know.
Helen
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Hi, Dollylee,
Managed to survive Christmas day, but as it's the 26th December it must be Boxing Day already and time to get those boxing gloves on and try and get that family bible back! But isn't that a completely wrong interpretation of the meaning of the day - now, where's my Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable...
keith
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On my maternal side, my first cousin once removed had our family Bible. It was passed down to him from my mum's uncle. He has since died and I believe his wife still has it.
I do not know his wife personally, but have managed through another cousin to obtain her contact details. I am going to write and ask her if she still has the Bible and if she has any objection to letting me see it or indeed have it.
Fingers crossed :)
Dolly
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It must be great to hold a family bible and read the words an ancestor has written years before. I have no such family treasure, but recently found some distant relatives on GR and was kindly sent a digital image of some pages from the front of a family bible and some digital copies of photographs, none of which I had asked for, nor indeed knew about, but am so happy and grateful to have and treasure.
So hope goes out to everyone who is searching and hope you come out trumps.
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! ;D
Pipkim ;D
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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! ;D
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
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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 :o. I will have to take my chances and leave them for another time.
Pipkim :)
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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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
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These days, with photocopiers, digital cameras, scanners, and all manner of gadgets, I think it would make sense to copy all the family information, make hard and soft copies, and then send the actual book to the person who seems most interested and capable of caring for it, or, preferably, a library/archive if they are interested. There is no reason why everyone can't have their own copies these days. To care for an original is a responsibility, and needs to go to the person/organization best equipped to do so. Personally I have no need for originals of anything except photos, as long as the copy is clear.
(But I sure would like to find the family bible owned by Adam Murray, who was born in Castleton Scotland in 1808 and died in 1900 in Chicago, apparently at the home of his son Charles!) It is mentioned in the History of Middlex County (Ontario), so we know it did exist. -- just thought I'd throw that in here in the vain hope that some day someone who knows the answer will be searching through rootschat...
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Loo,
If you don't already have it, I found the 1900 US Census info for Adam Murray. Let me know if you would like a copy .
Lynn McGoldrick Franger
Aurora, Illinois
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Actually, I do not have that information, Lynn; somehow did not occur to me to look for it, I guess. Adam didn't die until November, so it would make sense that he would be on the census. He was living in Canada before that.
So, yes, I would appreciate having that family's census info. You could send it by PM, I suppose, so as to avoid cluttering this thread. Now you've got me wondering whether the son, Charles, shows up on subsequent censuses! I had thought it hopeless because the name is too common, but if the 1900 gives an address, then that could give me a start. Maybe I'll find that Bible yet!
Thanks!
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Hi again, Loo,
Hope springs eternal, you never know what another lead might throw up! Hopefully, a family bible...
keith
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I'll PM that info to you.
Lynn
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Family Bibles can be a mine of family details but they can be also a way of hiding things that the holder of the Bible doesn't wish others to know! The Bible can then be kept in that branch of the family and access can be denied to others. As with my mother's side of the family history. Knowledge is power.
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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. ;)
A nice thought - some people would like to help, while others.......................................
My ancestral family lived in the same house for 100 years. When the last descendant died, the house was pulled down. I was speaking to the neighbouring family and they showed me "my" family bible that the last descendant had given them some years prior. I politely inquiried if they wanted it, or would it be possible for me to take possession of "my" family bible. They said I could look at it, and take take notes, but they would not give it to me.
A couple of years later I wrote to those neighbours indicating if the family bible was just gathering dust around the house, I would take it off their hands. I included my address, phone and email. I received no replies whatsoever.
Unfortunately, those neigbours have since moved house, taking the bible with them (to my knowldege). Another piece of family history lost :(
Les
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We don't have a family bible in either the Maternal or Paternal side of the family but there is a Birthday Book in the Paternal side which has come down the female line. It belonged to my G Grandmother and went my my Grandmothers youngest daughter and is now in the possesion of her daughter, my cousin.
I has been a wealth of information although a lot of it has entailed a bit of detective work such as "Sarah died 27.04.1892" no indication of who Sarah was/is though!
Handwritting and the deciphering of it has also been a bit difficult, I do however have a handwritten transcript of it and am slowly working my way through it with a varying amount of success and the discovery of an awfully lot of red herrings.
Alan NZ
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I have many old photos, documents etc and after discussion with the family I have arranged for the local Archives to have them. Safe,secure and no-one can destroy them in a fit of temper. Always accessible to the family but safe and correctly stored. The perfect answer.Whatever you decide please don't destroy valuable information.Josephine.
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It really annoys me when I hear storys like Les de B where someone who has no legitimate claim, or interest, keeps something from a family member who has got a claim!
A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. My great grandad's youngest sister inherited all the family papers/bible as she was the last one at home, then she died and her husband would not allow family members access to them. He died and a few years later after I traced his sons, I asked them about the papers/bible. They said they knew nothing about them, so goodness knows where they ended up! But what right did he have to keep information that belonged to my family away from us??!! >:(
ps. I have in my possession a birthday book dating back to the 1880s and last year I sent it to be copied by one of my distant cousins so he can make sure that all our other cousins also have a copy of whats in the book (its now safely tucked away at home and I shall pass it on to whoever in my family is the most interested in family history, along with strict instructions to give it to the local FHS if no one wants it)
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hi
i have just join this forum but have been researching my family history for a long while off and on over the yrs.. now im starting to add in my husbands family too.. but to the topic at hand.. my mum's side of the family have a family bible which at the moment is at my grandparents place, although i never have looked in it, am hoping it will be passed on to my mum, then me then hopefully my daughter if i have one.. it has been known that the eldest daughter of each generation is handed it, but my grandma wants to hand it to my aunty (mum's younger sister) who will hand it to her daughter who as far as i know has no interest in it, maybe i could borrow it for a very long time.. lol.. just be nice to have great nanna's wishes met.. who i soo loved when i was little..
good luck with everyone who searching for their families histories..
deb73
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I am fortunate to have my grandmother's Bible which went to my mother. I do work on our family histories. One of the first things I did was scan the pages where someone had written the births, marriages, and deaths in her family.
She had received it some time after wedding. The following info in the center of the Bible gives her and grandpa's birthdates, their wedding date, where they were married [at her parents home], and the minister. The frontespiece says it was presented to her by two of my aunts and their husbands.
The handwriting of the BMD's are in two different inks. It's obvious to me my mother wrote some of it, and maybe one of the aunts wrote the rest before it was given to grandma. She was married in 1910, but the gift was from one of the aunts who was married in 1955, so it may have been a Christmas present later than that. It was only presented to Grandma, so it's possible Grandpa may have died. I'm glad I had a chance to receive it from my mom and remember her having it. I don't have a daughter; neither does my sister who will inherit it from me. Who will inherit all the genealogy next has always concerned me. Redfox
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My Irish side of the family had a Bible that came from the old country with them, and was passed down to my Gran's mother, Gran being the eldest daughter by 10 years is the only one in the family who can remember it.
Vanity does strange things to people and my Gt grandmother was unfortunately one of those people. She was about 6 years older than her husband, but told her family that she was only 2 years older, the real date of birth being in the family bible. Through her vanity she didn't want her children knowing how old she really was so she gave the bible away to a cousin not even in the family.
The good thing is my mother used to play with the cousins son so, if i find him i may find the bible.
Its just really sad when someones vanity gets in the way of family heirlooms and history. If i ever find it, which i intend to do, a promise i made to my Gran, who is in her 81st year. It would be something she would love to have and see before she passed on.
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Hi again, Everyone,
Recently I have been trying to trace back the Cambridge JOHNSON family pre a 1797 marriage, and have been contacted by another Rootschatter who says an aunt of his has a transcription from the flyleaves of a bible that has disappeared from view somewhere within the family. The following had me trawling through the PR's for Longstanton and Over trying to piece together who might have handed the bible to whom - without obvious success so far!
4:8:1754: "Richard Johnson is my name, England is my nation. Longstanton is my dwelling place, and Christ is my salvation, When I am dead and gone, and all my bones are rotten, If this you see, remember me, when I am quite forgotten."
"John Johnson, his book, 1779. I write my name for to betray, the thief that steals this book away. Steal not this book for fear of shame, for here you see the owner's name"
"Wm. Johnson, Feb 8 1786, Over, Cambridgeshire."
Shades of the lines on Shakespeare's grave here! And as I have not yet found a marriage or baptisms of children to a Richard JOHNSON baptised in 1731 in Longstanton (probably because the family were Nonconformist) I cannot work out who he would have passed this particular bible onto so that a John JOHNSON was writing so protectively in it in 1779...
keith
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Loo,
If you don't already have it, I found the 1900 US Census info for Adam Murray. Let me know if you would like a copy .
Lynn McGoldrick Franger
Aurora, Illinois
Hello,
I noticed you are researching Mangans from Ireland...my direct paternal family line are Mangans from County Clare..Do you know where your Mangans came from? Happy to share infomation with you if it helps.
Joanne (australia)
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It really annoys me when I hear storys like Les de B where someone who has no legitimate claim, or interest, keeps something from a family member who has got a claim!
Unfortunately the fact that a book contains details about a family written inside, that does not automatically make it the property of that family. I remember reading about someone who has just found a painting of an ancestor for sale in a London auction house - it's a pity he can't claim that, because it's reputedly going to be sold for many thousands of pounds :)
Anyone starting a family Bible or other book, or who is in the posession of an old one, should make sure that they include it as an item of value in their will, so that it ends up in the hands of the person who you want it to. Otherwise, it could end up in a black bin bag, which was what nearly happened to our "Family Bible", because everyone in the family had lost track of it, and it ended up in the hands of a very distant step-cousin. Had I not made contact with the daughter of that step-cousin via Genes Reunited only a matter of weeks earlier, it would truly have ended up in a black rubbish sack ! :o
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Hi, Nick 29,
Yes that person with the ancestor's oil painting that launched quite a thread earlier this year was me! Still hanging in the art dealer's in London, as far as I know...
Just thought I'd mention the fact that although the JOHNSON bible, to which I alluded a couple of posts or so ago, seems to have disappeared somewhere, the mere fact that someone within the family had made a note of the handwritten details re certain members of that family has proved to be a godsend. Without being signposted to the parishes of Over and Longstanton, I would never have discovered the three generations of JOHNSON's previous to John JOHNSON who married in Cambridge in 1797.
So even if you can't get your hands on the actual family Bible - for whatever reason - do try and twist arms in insisting that you at least get to know what details of family history are written down by previous members of that family in its flyleaves...
keith
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I noticed you are researching Mangans from Ireland...my direct paternal family line are Mangans from County Clare..Do you know where your Mangans came from? Happy to share infomation with you if it helps.
Joanne (australia)
Hi Joanne!
My great great grandfather was Philip Manning (sometimes referred to as Mangan), born March 1818 in Tipperary. He immigrated to Boston (Charlestown) about 1847, then moved to Gilberts Illinois about 1861. His mother's maiden name was Cooney, and her sister Judith was the mother of Patrick Augustine Feehan, first Archbishop of Chicago.
I don't know who his siblings were, and the Mangan / Manning references make it more challenging. Supposedly, the name was Mangan in Ireland.
Let me know if any of this fits into any onfo you have. Thanks!
Lynn
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I noticed you are researching Mangans from Ireland...my direct paternal family line are Mangans from County Clare..Do you know where your Mangans came from? Happy to share infomation with you if it helps.
Joanne (australia)
Hi Joanne!
My great great grandfather was Philip Manning (sometimes referred to as Mangan), born March 1818 in Tipperary. He immigrated to Boston (Charlestown) about 1847, then moved to Gilberts Illinois about 1861. His mother's maiden name was Cooney, and her sister Judith was the mother of Patrick Augustine Feehan, first Archbishop of Chicago.
I don't know who his siblings were, and the Mangan / Manning references make it more challenging. Supposedly, the name was Mangan in Ireland.
Let me know if any of this fits into any onfo you have. Thanks!
Lynn
Thanks... different counties ... you'll come across many more variations including Mangham, Mannion, as is often the case you need a lot of lateral thinking skills....Joanne
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Hi, just thought I would throw in my pennyworth and comment even though these posts are quite old.
Through my work I deal with lots of people who have family bibles and other books repaired or fully restored, usually in the last years of their life because they want to pass them on.
Their main consideration in choosing the person to pass it onto is " who will look after it" or if the book requires work then, " Who has interest in it, can afford to get it repaired and who will actually do that" - not necessarily the same person.
My advice to everyone who has access to a family Bible is to record for future generations - in pen and paper - or in a small book, the information in the Bible and store it with your valuables. Make a copy for each of your children.
In my experience there is usually someone every 2 generations or so, who feels this is important and needs to be conserved. They become really interested in the information or in seeking out the family bible and getting work done on it. It is therefore also important to have the information in a form that will be accessible to them.
Modern technology is great but it changes and does not last long. A book, pen and paper will last hundreds of years.
Good luck everyone.
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A family bible passed down through my husband's family ended in the possession of his grandfather.
My husband's grandfather died in 1969 and the bible was left in the care of his wife.
Unfortunately, she developed dementia and before her family realized the extent of her illness, the poor old woman had all but destroyed everything she no longer recognised, including the bible.
My mother in law tried to salvage what she could, but all she could find in the trash was the first page which was torn.
By extreme good fortune, it was the page listing births,and marriages, dating back to about 1800.
I took a photocopy of this, used it to create the family tree .
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Good to see this old thread vibrating into life again after lying dormant for nearly 5 years, although judging by the number of times it has now been looked at, it has not been ignored in the meantime!
keith
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In our family, the William Hughes Clark family Bible went to the oldest daughter in each generation, mainly because it seemed as if the women were more interested in the family genealogy & making the notations in the Bible. The only exception was that my father kept the Bible updated.
After my father's death, my older sister had possession of the family Bible but now that she's in the mid-stages of Alzheimer disease, I, the younger daughter, was given possession of ALL the family artifacts. And trust me, my ancestors were genealogical hoarders!
I, in turn, will pass the Bible down to my older daughter because she's the one interested in the family history. It's no use giving it to someone who is like Rhett Butler and can't really give a damn about the family history because that is a sure way to make sure the Bible gets lost due to lack-of-interest!
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Thanks very much for that, Amberella,
The "I don't give a damn" thing regarding family history often applies to the younger generation, who feel they are perhaps immortal, though more recently I've been pleasantly surprised by some quite young (under thirty) members of my family showing a bit of an interest. Though I'm not quite sure yet who exactly might be entrusted with the legacy of all my mountains of paperwork and research...
Regards, Keith
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Thanks very much for that, Amberella,
The "I don't give a damn" thing regarding family history often applies to the younger generation, who feel they are perhaps immortal, though more recently I've been pleasantly surprised by some quite young (under thirty) members of my family showing a bit of an interest. Though I'm not quite sure yet who exactly might be entrusted with the legacy of all my mountains of paperwork and research...
Regards, Keith
Sometimes you just have to hope they will maintain the research correctly. I recently was "gifted" with 10 boxes of family history. What I've done is built shelving & put each individual into a separate bin with their name on it. Then, when my daughter takes over it'll all be tidy & easily moved around.