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.

i laughed about it

I laughed too. Sorry @Jennaveeve

@FreedomandPeace I put biblebox in Google search and fell down a rabbit hole of evangelist sites! Box for bible worked better. Who'd have known there was such a thing.

I have one very similar to this, the first entry was the birth of my great great great grandmother in 1845. Over the years it's been passed down to the eldest daughter of each generation. It's so fascinating seeing something like this.

Oh yes @Rowgtfc72 they are lovely.
Heres ours. I love it

That's fabulous. I would have loved to have one of these in our family. I have been looking up our family history on the census records recently and one set of my great great grandparents couldn't read or write (Ireland, 1901). He did his signature as a cross on the document. They were labourers and poor, just scraping by.

Quite normal sadly.
I noticed comparing the 1901 and 1911 census that relatives didn’t even know how old they were. One could be 40 in 1901 and then 35 in 1911, they couldn’t read or write so had no way of checking what was being written down by the census takers.
My dad didn’t even know when he was born, not even the year. Couldn’t find him registered so his sisters had to get the local priest in Tipperary to fudge a record in the local church so he could get a passport in the 1990s.

I have relatives born in the 1920s and 30s that couldn’t read or write. Too poor to waste time going to school, they were needed to work or in my mums case ‘rock babies by the fire’ as she used to say.

Tracing your history can bring to light so much sadness and I’m reminded by so many of my relatives noted as dying with no medical attendance, so just a guess at cause of death.

What a find. It would be great if you could try and get it back to the family. I was very fortunate that someone rescued a family bible from a carboot sale and posted about it on a family history forum. Someone else contacted me about it as I have my tree online. It was my family and even had my Mum's name and birth listed! I have no idea who was the last member of the family to have it and how it landed up in a carboot sale but I am so grateful someone took the trouble to get it back to us.

@Rowgtfc72 That's wonderful. I would love an heirloom like that. I'm not religious but to have something like that, which was so important to my ancestors, would be fantastic.

How great! Local libraries often have access to Ancestry.com free so you can check out the family there. Electoral role can also help. I think they might be thrilled to get it back. If they dont want it, the other option would be local history groups?

That's lovely. I know my Gran had the old family bible and she gave it to my older sister but she somehow managed to lose it when moving house and didn't realise it was missing for about 2 years when sh wanted to add the birth of her first DGC. My BiL turned the house upside down looking for it but it was not found. I was really sad because my eldest sisters births and christenings were recorded in there.

🤮

Christenings too.

Often elderly people would leave their family bible in the home they lived in hidden away somewhere like the attic if they had no family to pass it down too. It was something to do with superstitions that if it wasn't passed down with the family it stayed with the home. By all means research the family see if there is anyone still.alive who would like it. If not keep to with the house and when you move leave it with the house.

🙄

What an odd reaction. Their life is my family history including my parents. Why would anyone wallow in that.
Im not getting off on my families suffering what a horrible reaction to my post

Ask at a local second hand book shop or on Reddit if it’s valuable. If not I’d put it back. Maybe it’s good luck.

A descendant of the family who is interested in genealogy would be utterly thrilled to get this back.

OP why don't you post some names (or a photo of the name page) - as there are a few people on the thread who have said they have an Ancestry subscription - they may be able to help you find surviving family members.

I would also (as well as going back to last occupants) check with your local library and see if there's a Kelly's directory which lists all the addresses and occupants names from the 1960s. That's after the house was built. Cross reference with the names in the bible.
I'd also find a local 'memories of town name' type FB page, and ask on there if anyone knows the Smith family or Last Surname Name in Bible may have marries into Smith Family, and that lived in Your Road Name in the 1960s.

Do allow someone who is interested in Family History to have it if they can, in any way, lay claim to it.
I've been doing family history research for over 20yrs and a few years ago we were made aware of an old bible in a junk shop, that had been bought by someone who thought it was interesting. After a while she was able to make a familial link with someone who had a more distant claim than us, but 'cos she got there first she got the bible. Such a rich source of information.

There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. You are absolved, my child.

This is an absolute treasure. I have one of my late Granny's and it's so precious. Someone, somewhere would really appreciate their families history in this form. As others have said previously, perhaps there is a way of tracing through the names, or through previous ownership of the house? I think it would be such a shame for it not to be in the hands of it's rightful owners.

I bought a bible (to replace a bible stolen from the church I sang at), but for various reasons too complex and tedious to go into, the church then didn't take it so I've kept it. Several pages are covered in births and death records from the early 1700s.

I had the binding repaired, and also transcribed (as far as possible) the written in sections, so hopefully this will help this interesting bit of history last a few more centuries.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats That's fab! I was going to ask you if you'd traced the family, but I looked up poor Valentine, and a quick click shows he was baptised and buried in Doncaster! How the world has changed in such a short space of time.