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.

We've also got a family bible with our family tree in it. My brother has got now.

It is fascinating - it also has a book plate in the front dated 1850 and a bit of squirreling shows it was then owned by one of the original contributors to the OED. I imagine him going through this copy of the Geneva Bible looking for the first uses of words and phrases.
Picture of the main other page (presumably where James started).
The first line is James Waber. His Boock.
I rather like that.

I think it's a great shame that bibles of this age are often cut up and individual pages sold for framing. People make a mint from it but it feels like vandalism to me.

That's fantastic. Yes, it would be absolute vandalism to cut it up.
It's interesting how James describes the children as the son of James, but doesn't mention his wife, who actually gave birth! Was the 1850 owner a descendant, or had the book already been sold?

There is a reference to the 'Low fall (lawful?) marrigh' to Jane Stagg in 1717 - a second wife or legitimising the first maybe? She was born in 1686 so could be either.
Book plate ownership looks unrelated to the original family - but the reference to Richard Barker on the page is interesting as the printer was Robert Barker (first printer if the KJV). It's probably coincidence but who knows?

@TheBramley - apologies I feel I may have hijacked your already very interesting thread.

Family Bible, every family had one back in the day but they aren't worth £. Stick it on your local FB group with some names and DOB's and see if you can trace a descendant to pass it on to.

Oh how interesting. I can just imagine Richard Barker finding the bible for sale, and knowing just the person who would cherish it!

I think I’m right in saying many years ago people used to put bibles in lofts of houses to guard against evil spirits and witchcraft etc

It didn't belong to a church, it belonged to a family. This was quite common in centuries past in families with enough money to be able to afford to buy one, and people would record all the family births, marriages and deaths in it. It would be handed down the generations. Seems like this one reached a descendant who put it up in their loft for safekeeping, and it was left there when they moved out or passed away.

I found a small one at a car boot sale once, and yes, I did buy it.

Where do you store stuff you know you have to keep but hardly ever need to use?

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/BOOK-COMMON-PRAYER-Administration-Sacraments-London/2126841633/bd

not this is it?

www.atlasantiques.co.uk/en-GB/religious-antiques/antique-1862-pictoral-lithograph-national-comprehensive-family-bible/prod_13509

So, the bible is dated 1840 but you found it in a house from the 1950s. That should mean that it had a family owner up to at least 75 years ago, which narrows the search somewhat. I would start by searching ancestry.co.uk for the most recent name for which you have a date of some sort - birth, marriage or death. And what you are looking for is ancestry users who have that name in their family tree. If you can find someone with the same surname, you are headed in the right direction.

People on here are very good at tracking down long lost or never found relatives.
I remember one thread about a possible connection between Yorkshire and Australia.
Most fascinating.
There are some real Detectives on here and very helpful people.
Why don't you post the most recent entries names and dates and rough area and see if anyone nibbles ?
Good luck.

What a lovely find OP. Our family bible was stolen in the 1970's by an unscrupulous person who had offered to do a bit of work to strengthen the spine. He did a moonlight flit and the bible went with him. I would absolutely love to have it now. Please try to find the family OP, you might absolutely make their day.

Wow! What a find!

My DM was contacted via a genealogy site by someone who had found her family bible. It was about to go on a bonfire, but someone spotted it, rescued it and took the time to track down my DM who was delighted to receive it back into our family.

Low Fell is an area in Gateshead. Do you think it may refer to that? As both words have a capital letter at the beginning?

Never say never but I think it's unlikely. Jane Stagg was from Doncaster (I've seen a transcript of her baptism certificate)

Wow, what a wonderful find op, an absolute treasure. Please update us, if you have any lead on finding it’s way to the owner.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats As an aside, you probably know this already, but jpgs of the actual parish registers from Doncaster are now available on FMP, not just the transcripts.

You can give it to your local archives.