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Ancestry Daily News
3/26/2003 - Archive
Honoring Our Ancestors: Googling a Bible Home
Since I began writing on the subject of rescuing orphan photos and other memorabilia
for the Ancestry Daily News in November 2002, I'm going to assume that
most readers already know what I mean when I use that phrase. For those who
don't, please consider having a look at the
previous articles.
A Traveling Salesman Who Delivers Bibles
Today, I'd like to profile a case that was brought to my attention by Keith
Kirkland of Winchester, Virginia. Keith's initial e-mail sparked my interest
because of the peculiar way the Bible described came into his hands:
"My family has come into possession of a family Bible dating from the early
1800s with its earliest recorded entry dated 1766. It was given to an uncle
because one of the referenced surnames includes my family's name - Kirkland.
La Crosse, Virginia is home to a small but relatively well-known candy company.
Apparently, one of the traveling sales reps for this company was on a sales
call to a small country store near Gasburg, Virginia when the gentleman who
ran the shop mentioned he had the Bible but wasn't sure who it belonged to,
though it had the Kirkland family name in it. The rep and my uncle were friends,
so the rep brought it to my uncle to try and match it up with his family line.
"The Bible is remarkably well preserved and whoever kept it did so with
meticulous handwriting. It also contains a small envelope that has a wonderful
example of Victorian prose eulogizing one of the children of the family who
died at the age of 16, in the 1800s. There are several plantation names mentioned
as locations for marriages, including South View. I have tried finding information
on any of the referenced surnames and haven't had much luck."
Clues in the Bible
Intrigued, I asked Keith to send me some of the family data contained in the
Bible and he promptly responded with almost three pages of births, marriages
and deaths, going back in one line to a George Stone born in Ireland on Christmas
day 1793 and in another line to David Kirkland who was born in 1766. David's
wife, Nancy, was born in my newly adopted town of Williamsburg, Virginia--exactly
220 years ago tomorrow. I had just taken a walk through the quiet streets of
Colonial Williamsburg and couldn't help but wonder if I had just strolled where
she often did.
Shifting my focus to detective mode, I sought out the most recent events in
the Bible. Fortunately, this brought me forward in time to a couple, George
Edward Taylor and Fannie Kirkland (Kelly) Taylor, who had died in 1929 and 1936,
respectively.
A Running Start with the 1930 Census
As I so often do, I went straight to the every-name index for 1930 U.S. census
on Ancestry.com to look for Fannie. Her name alone brought up 742 matches, but
qualifying the search by state, county, and age quickly brought me to the right
one. I knew it was her because the freshly widowed Fannie was living with two
of her daughters whose births were listed in the Bible.
Fortune was smiling on me because one of the daughters was married with three
daughters. Her husband was also in the household, but just under his initials,
so I backtracked to the 1920 census head-of-household index to see if I could
discover his full name. Success! I was now seeking the family of Clinton and
Frances Louise (Taylor) Epperson.
When in Doubt, Google
A quick detour to the SSDI revealed Clinton's death in 1980, but no sign of
his wife. I then did a search of FamilySearch.org and several online collections
of family trees. Clinton appeared several times (with conflicting pedigrees,
I might add), but always without his wife and children. Apparently, some researchers
are interested in his family, but I was more interested in his wife's since
it was through her family that the Bible had been passed down for so many generations.
The obvious next step was to focus on the three daughters, but I was concerned
about the odds of discovering their married names. With nothing to lose, I went
to Google.com (my favorite search engine) and typed in the name of one of the
daughters. My hopes faded when only one hit appeared.
I clicked on it and came to a remarkable site called Virginians.com (if you
have any Brunswick County, Virginia roots, you must visit this site) by John
W. Pritchett. Rather than wade though the contents, I did an edit-find on the
daughter's name and was delighted to find myself looking at three bullets that
told me who each of the daughters had married and where in Virginia they had
resided.
Where Are They Today?
As a precaution, I always make a quick stop at the SSDI when I find names of
potential contacts. Sadly, doing so showed me that one of the daughters had
passed away in 1988. In fact, she died very close to where the Bible had wandered,
so this offered a partial explanation of how it might have strayed.
The second daughter proved more elusive. I couldn't find her in the SSDI or
phone directories, so I moved on to the third. According to the phone directory
on Ancestry.com, it appeared she lived about 25 miles from me.
I passed on her contact information to Keith and requested that he contact her
to see if she was indeed a daughter of the most recent Bible owners. The following
morning I was rewarded with another e-mail that reminded me yet again of how
interconnected we all are:
"You were right. I contacted her and she confirmed that her parents were
the people you mentioned. I'm going to ship her the Bible in a few days. She
said that she has a cousin in California who is responsible for keeping the
family history who would love to get this information, if not the Bible itself.
As proof of a small world, she actually knew of my uncle and went to college
with my aunt."
Keep 'em Coming!
I hope you are all enjoying reading about these rescued orphans as much as I
am researching and writing about them. If you have any such items in your possession,
please consider sending me a brief summary of the details and perhaps it will
become the subject of one of these articles. Once again, I'd like to thank those
who have already written. I'm working on some of your misplaced memorabilia
now. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to pursue every waif that comes
my way, but if we keep this up, we'll soon have a whole orphanage worth of items
back in their proper homes.
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of Honoring Our Ancestors (HOA)
and In Search of Our Ancestors, can be reached at megan@honoringourancestors.com.
Resources for rescuing orphan photos can be found here
and information about her HOA grants can be found here.
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