Who should the Family Bible be handed down to?

[CatOne]

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)

[deb73]

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

[RedFox]

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

[grimnar]

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.

[Keith Sherwood]

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

[jomill]

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)

[Nick29]

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 ! 

[Keith Sherwood]

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

[LynnsBookshelf]

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