I’ve found an enormous - I mean enormous - old bible in the rafters of my loft

[TheBramley]

It’s got marriage, birth and death inscriptions in the front pages from 1840. It’s in a bad way but fully intact. What should I do with it? I live in an ex local authority properly from about 1950. It was behind the old wadding.

Put some names, dates, places etc on this site, I'm sure there are some of us who would love to be Poirot, investigating.

This

Someone mentioned the Mormons (ancestry) which is a decent site. The National Archives has court records and if the surname in this family bible is not super common, you can unearth things with a simple date and name search.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

I guess I start first with previous owners though? It’s not something you could miss place - it weighs as much as a sturdy toddler. It wouldn’t do a bad job as a traffic bollard.

If you wanted to sell it, it's probably worth in the region of £50 - I've sold similar ones on eBay, they often go to America....

What an amazing find! It may not be overly valuable but it'll be precious either way. I hope you find the family it belongs to.

Have you considered it was put there for a reason? I'd put it back.

We had my Stepfathers family bible like that, so old with all the family written in.
We gave it to the local chapel. His children and ex have all died and we aren't blood relatives so it felt wrong to keep it.

What is the date of the newest entry in it?

There's a section in Mumsnet for just these sort of investigations... 🙂
www.mumsnet.com/talk/genealogy

They're so fascinating - not worth a great deal but fabulous for looking into the history of the people who lived in your house previously.

Yeah, we moved into our house 3 years ago, just had a massive renovation done and found one in our loft rafters. It's now in the garage as the rafters no longer exist as they were. Fascinating find. Those things are huge... and heavy! We also found with it, an ancient tiny scout uniform with a few badges and a train set 😁

I would give it to the local church, ask them to track down the registry names and any living relatives.
I'm also pretty superstitious though so I would cleanse the house and expell any negative energy and/or attachments.

Big family bibles like this used to be relatively common place. All the births, deaths and marriages recorded in them.

Perhaps go to the local paper with it. Someone in the family will still be around I’m sure.

@TheBramley are there any identifying marks on it at all? the location it is from?

I would wonder if it was that big if it was stolen so wouldn't necessarily start first with the previous owners until you've considered this first.

Bibles - valuable ones - are often stolen from churches because they had gold plated covers which was the value and then discarded. There are lots of reports if you look here are a few: - the second link is about 9 bibles stolen from churches.

https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/24744534.cctv-appeal-bible-stolen-st-albans-church/

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/is-nothing-sacred-thief-steals-antique-bibles-from-churches-6581421.html

You could see if a local museum would like it.

That's an image By Rubens. Shame it's not a Dore illustrated Bible, they fetch a few pennies. No idea if yours is worth anything. Any idea who the publisher is/ year?

Seriously - do a bit of digging to see if there is any information in it that may identify it as a stolen bible.

It's shocking how often this happens.
More bibles stolen from churches:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-25186438

https://www.stranraerrpcs.org/news/2018/7/31/bible-stolen-from-unsuspecting-churchgoers

https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/two-bibles-up-to-200-years-old-stolen-from-church

Is this the start of a horror film? 🤣🤣

OP don’t move that bible or you’ll get some strange goings on in your house!

My grandmother asked for a family Bible as a significant birthday present (90?) and my uncle was able to find an unused one (no other family’s births or deaths recorded inside).
From that I’d guess they were popular after the age of universal literacy. Late 1800s?

That's amazing. All I found in my loft were cigarettes.

Does your area have a local museum. I work in one and this is the type of things we are interested in

Well your options seem straightforward to me, keep it or get rid of it. If it’s not particularly sentimental then no point keeping it. I personally can’t imagine there’s much of a market for it so it’s unlikely to sell for much. Maybe some collector might want it but I wouldn’t assume it would get snapped up for a high price. Just donate it somewhere.

Oh wow keep it

I'd have to find out who it belonged to and give it back to the family. The dates and names should be traceable, as are owners via the council rates records.