Stalking the Family Bibles for clues.

Several months back a 5th cousin showed me her mother’s family Bible.  The Bible was large and beautifully bound. It has a leather and timber cover. Included in the Bible is a records section with  coloured, gold embossed pages. This section was for recording births deaths and marriages.

Allan family bible has been handed down over the years

It is a real heirloom passed down from the original recipient of the Bible to her daughters, granddaughters etc over several generations. It records a line of the family of Allan descendants from the famous cricketer Francis Erskine Allan AKA Bowler of the Century 1849-1917

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At a brief glance, it has at least 4  generations and as the family expanded with added generations of babies it became more unwieldy with backs of pages used and writing getting tighter.

....and all the descendants

I guess it also used to store more than names over the years. It would seem logical that the Bible would have become a receptacle used to slip in newspaper clippings, obituaries, funeral cards, actual documents, letters, cards, pressed flowers or even handwritten jottings.



Recently I was emailed some more simple notes recorded in a less regal family Bible of the Smith family of Bethnal Green.  Much less grandiose but nonetheless important these bore information on my great grandmother‘s brother, his wife and their children.

George Smith m Lydia Eaton

George and Lydia's family recorded at the front of the bible

 I’m grateful that a distant relative took the time to scan and share and even more grateful of the tradition of recording the family tree in the family Bible.



I’ve two other “Bible stories”. One is about a book passed down from my great grandfather Thomas Gadsby. It is “A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship” by William Gadsby printed in 1874 by a J Gadsby.  All that was known originally was that it was a gift to Thomas Gadsby in 1911 upon his departure from England to Australia. It’s a bit water damaged and has no family histories but it was a cause for further research.  Yes indeed William Gadsby was a famous Minister and prolific hymn writer 1773-1844. His hymns are still sung today.   Research has shown that it was his son John who published it.  William’s my 4^th great uncle so he was Thomas’ great Uncle. Whether this was a family heirloom or just a practical gift it is in safe hands with a succession plan complete with relevant stories about it’s importance.

This Hymn book came to Australia in 1912

The oldest living granddaughter  has custody and its future has been secured

This cherished hymn book  enriches our family story

Another bible found amongst my father’s things belonged to his Aunt Jessie. It had a message “from cousin Tom 1911”.  She had a brother Tom but who was this cousin?  Further research found Jessie, a young widow living with half first cousin Thomas and his mother in the 1911 Census just before she left for Australia. So it ended up being a rather helpful inscription.



 Lately I’ve seen some genealogy Facebook posts where people have bought up Bibles with family trees found in op shops and bookstores and advertised them to try and restore them with their original family. Who can resist a quick search on Ancestry to find a current tree? Whether it is intentional or not it’s such a crime to throw away this incredible record. It probably says more about today's value of owning a Bible. How generous of these folk to buy the unwanted books and use all of their research skills and genealogical know how to find a new family home for these treasures.



The Old Testament tells us that “you should not covet your neighbour's goods”. I will admit to some serious family history envy. I’d sure like my own copy to have and to cherish. Oh well after years of research my tree is too large to fit in my Bicentennial Edition of the Good News Bible.


Hint of the Day:  Items to be saved should be identified and perhaps "gifted" to the most likely eventual custodian of the family records.

Girls Own Annual

I found a book relegated to the garage -- well it wasn't really the garage it should have been Mum's studio. Now it was just a storage shed. Sadly she didn't get time to retire and paint before she died twenty years ago. The shed was not the ideal storage place because it was built next to an old creek bed. Every now and then the land returned to its former purpose during one in twenty year flood events. The building sustained these deluges two or three times before I retrieved my mother's things.

Two rickety old shelves held the excess household books. Mum had ensured that her childhood treasures and her old favourites were elevated. Somehow her treasures became mixed with objects cast out of the house in the latest exercise in discarding excess furniture. In reality this should have been a comfy, sunny studio housing a daybed -- a place to potter and paint. Twenty years after Mum had died it had become a repository for everything that Dad had collected plus his office archives, surplus lamps, paintings suitcases, trunks and other "stuff"

When cleaning out the shed lots of this useful stuff found its way to the dump bin, op shops or auction sales. In deciding what to keep there were rash moments of "Chuck it" or discussions about whether to  "give it away" or  "could be worth something". Cleaning out that shed took weeks.

It was old and obviously well loved, ravaged by moisture and lack of care, It was a dog-eared and repaired relic I should think I would never read it and it was totally unsaleable. The Girl's Own Annual won out. This 800 page dilapidated book from my mother's shelves came home with me and only later did I work why it is so important for me to keep….

 

Girls Own Annual   “was an important and positive influence on generations of girls and women, and a vital outlet for women's writing and ideas, for more than three-quarters of a century". E Honor Ward

 

A bit of research and the book was much older than my mother –so it wasn’t hers. It was then the penny dropped. “The Girls Own Annual” volume XXX was printed in 1909/1910. Finally I had a relic of the Gadsby family’s travels from England. This book came out to Australia with my great grandmother Selina and her girls 100 years ago. I can just imagine them pawing over this large finely bound green hardcover publication with gilt lettering during the 6 week journey to Australia .

The Girl’s Own Paper and Women’s Magazine was strewn with illustrated pages of paintings and drawings both in colour and black and white. There were pages of women’s fashions of the day- Edwardian dresses the girls would have had packed in their trunks ready to wear in “the colonies”.  There were stories of the times, photos of royalty, plants and gardens-not unlike current Women’s magazines only much more sensible.  It included plenty of tips on etiquette, ideas and patterns for crafts and all manner of commonsense subjects such as “Possibilities with Lemons” “Suggestions for School-girl’s Dresses”, “Ideas for Towel Ends. It may answer to “rare book” but it will never be described as “in excellent condition” or even “good” on E-bay but to me it’s priceless!