No question, just a very, very excited person here. A Family Bible has been found

Question

A family Bible, dating back to 1865, was found a couple of years ago by a bookseller in Washington state.  

A few days ago he contacted me, ON WIKITREE, via my 3rd great-grandmother's profile.  [[Lankford-206|Caroline Almeda (Lankford) Sturdivant (1835-1910)]]  He sent a private message about the bible.  

It measures 12 x 9.5 x 5.  It has notes about births and deaths from 1865 to 1985.  There are many pictures placed in the Bible along with the handwritten births, deaths and marriages up to 1985.  Many newspaper articles too.  

I cannot wait.  I am hoping my great grandmother, [[Harris-8945|Mary Ann (Harris) Osborne (1891-1986)]], appears in the Bible as she married Caroline's grandson, [[Osborne-1871|Claude Edward Osborne (1891-1951)]].  At the time of their marriage they all lived in Mineral Wells, Texas, which is where the Bible originated from.  I am BEYOND excited.  It was mailed today.  

It made me cry.

I can only say thank you for not giving up on finding a direct descendant of her family.  THANK YOU!

Comments

Fantastic!

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Congrats! I'm very happy for you!

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Peggy,

Thank you!

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Dina,

Thank you.  Very, very excited. :)

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This is really great! Congrats!

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How very exciting! Congratulations!

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Thank you Jamie!!

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Maria,

Thank you, so excited! :)

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So happy for you

Answer 1

Congratulations!!!!

They are so precious.

Comments

Lynn,

I am so excited.  Never expected anything like this at all.  :)

Betty

Answer 2

That is FANTASTIC!!!!  I have been buying 'lots' of letters and photos and trying to reunite them with people...it feels awesome to get things back to their rightful owners...

I'm so happy that a good Samaritan found you!

Comments

Elizabeth,

I cannot wait to get it and it has made me realize that I will watch for things like this now and try to reunite them with their families.  I am very grateful he kept trying to find me and my family. ;)

Answer 3

Betty,

This is wonderful.

May I suggest that you scan the pages and post them as jpgs in a free space.

Here is an example -  Loder Bible - Owned by Anna (Loder) (Smith) Stoddard for one that I did.

Comments

Hi Philip!  

What a great idea!  I will do that as soon as it gets here.  I had not even thought of doing that myself.  Thank you for suggesting the idea!  :)

Betty

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Philip,

I love your free space. Have you had the Loder Bible for a long time?

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Betty,

The Loder Bible is not in my possession, the owner was gracious enough to give me permission to post it.

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Betty, what a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it.

That bookseller is an angel for searching you out.

It was a family bible like this that is at least partially responsible for my interest in family history. Like Philip, I have a free-space page for it: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Whitten_Family_Bible

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Philip,

You were very lucky, indeed.  I am glad they gave you the opportunity to take photos and share them with Wikitree.  The freespace is lovely.  :)

Betty

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Hi Chris,

Nice to hear from you!!!  Hope all is well?

Your freespace is beautiful too!!!  If not for you and Philip I would never have even thought of creating a freespace for the bible.  Thank you both for the suggestion.  :)

Betty

Answer 4

I, too, have found old18th and 19th century Bibles, copied the title page and the family data section, then made a dozen or more copies on archival paper.  Those I send to  DAR, SAR, NGS, NEHGS,  and other genealogical organizations (including those organizations in the area where the family lived when I can find that info), as well as family name associations.

It is so sad to find these old Bibles (and shoe boxes of old photos, too) in flea markets and local auctions, knowing that there are descendants around the country who would love to have copies of them.

The more I can spread them around the more likely descendants will find them; then maybe they will go viral among folks in that family tree.

EuGene

Comments

Hi Eugene,

Sorry for the delay in response.  Got caught up in a source-a-thon. :)  

I am going to keep an eye out for old bibles now, it had not occurred to me before.  I will now.  

I did not know you could send them to particular places if you found one.  Thank you for mentioning they accept the bibles.  

It is wonderful having it.  It came in the mail the day before yesterday, it is beautiful!!!  

Betty

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Betty,

 didn't mean to imply any of those organizations accept old Bibles, rather what I sent them was copies of the the Bible front page and all of the family genealogy info contained within it.

Most of those organizations do not want the Bibles, rather they would love to have copies of the materials on archival paper which has been copied from the Bibles.  I include info on where I found the Bible, so if there is a descendant who would like to have it they know where it was when I copied it (of course it may no longer be there).

Only one person would be able to possess the Bible, but any number of descendants can get a copy of the material scanned or photocopied from the Bible.

That was what I was meaning in my answer to your original posting.

EuGene

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Eugene,

Thanks for clearing it up, I did assume they accepted the bibles.  Good to know what they actually accept.  :)  Thank you!