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Ancestry Daily News
5/8/2003 - Archive
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Honoring Our Ancestors: Bible Rescue Insurance |
Honoring Our Ancestors: Bible Rescue Insurance
Over the last six months, I've written a series of articles about
techniques to track down the rightful owners of Bibles and other treasures that
have strayed from family hands. If you're just joining in on this subject, you
can see previous articles at: http://www.honoringourancestors.com/library.html#nine
After each piece appears, I receive an influx of e-mails from people with
other orphaned items, inviting me to do the necessary detective work to locate
the family of origin. Often mixed in with these is a sprinkling of comments
from people with concerns about heirlooms that either resist rescuing or are
returned to family members, only to disappear into the ether again.
Both of these are legitimate issues. Some items are all but impossible to return
because of inadequate details, extremely common names, or other impediments.
And some rescued treasures are safely tucked away, making it difficult for other
descendants of the original owners to access the information contained within.
Fortunately, several readers have written with wise recommendations for exactly
these kinds of situations. I'd like to share a few of their ideas with you.
Share it Online
Shawn Ford of Appleton, Wisconsin, suggests that data be copied and uploaded
before the return of the item:
"I think it is wonderful that people are returning long lost family Bibles,
records, photos and such. I would love to receive one of these records and have
the ability to fill in gaps in my genealogy. What concerns me is that these
items, when returned, will very possibly remain in the private arena, and other
genealogists descended from or related to the original owners will not benefit
from the information. Sometimes inertia is the reason for this, and sometimes
it is family estrangement. I am sure many genealogists have experienced one
or both of these frustrations in attempting to complete their family histories.
This is an opportunity to get the information out to the greatest number of
descendants. I would like to suggest to those returning these items that the
information from these sources be scanned if possible, or at least that it be
recorded and uploaded to an online site before the items are returned to a particular
family member."
Mitzi Allen was a little more specific, recommending that details be posted
on surname message boards and telling of her own success story:
"I would like to see people who have found old Bibles publish the names/dates
(if sure the members are deceased, of course) on message boards under the family
name. That way, others researching that name can also access the information
from the Bible in the future. I had a lovely thing happen to me. Years ago,
I put a query on the Pace bulletin board asking to contact others researching
my 3rd great-grandfather's family (of course, I put the full name, birth date/place
and death date/place in the subject line, rather than a generic "searching
for my grandfather" subject). As a result of this posting, I was recently
contacted by a woman, Anna Boone, who turns out to be my second cousin once
removed. She had a 1912 picture of a young woman who turned out to be my mother!
She sent me the picture and you can imagine how thrilled and grateful I am!
Wonderful things happen online!"
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
Long before anyone had even thought of a concept like the Internet, the DAR
gathered Bible records for preservation. Marcia Connors, the Tennessee DAR Lineage
Research Chairman, wrote to remind us of this long-established resource:
"I am in the DAR and one of the projects we support is the copying of the
genealogical information in family Bibles, so that this will be preserved for
history, rather than lost one day when the Bible disappears. These records are
recorded in a book of Bible records in the county where that particular family
lived. We do not care where a Bible is from, only that its genealogical information
be preserved. Our chapter of the DAR is currently collecting Bible records from
those in our county, and this information will eventually be put into book form.
If someone has records from another state, those pages are sent to that state's
Bible records collection. These records are compiled by the DAR, and placed
in the DAR Library at each chapter's expense for anyone to use."
To look for Bibles that may pertain to your family, go to the DAR's Online Library
Catalog (http://www.dar.org/library/onlinlib.html
) and search your family surnames, as well as the counties in which they lived.
Including the word "Bible" in your search terms will help focus the
results.
Local and State Societies
Rev. Richard R. Berg, Archivist of the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society
and Director of Library Services for the Lancaster Theological Seminary, provided
another option for the researcher hoping to ensure the preservation of a Bible
and its contents:
"I . . . support efforts to return such items to the proper families. When
such efforts are not successful or the current owner does not wish to make such
an effort, an alternative is to locate an appropriate archival repository for
the item(s). Local or state historical and genealogical societies will often
welcome the donation. In addition, they will often make the contents available
to a wide audience on their website.
"Our institution, the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, is the
repository for records of the former German Reformed Church (U.S.) 1725-1869;
Reformed Church in the United States 1869-1934; and the Evangelical and Reformed
Church 1934-1961. We have received many donations of family Bibles, local church
records, and personal papers from persons who purchased the items at local auctions,
flea markets, or antique shops. All of these donations have enriched our collection,
preserved the history of churches and individuals, and made the information
available to historical and genealogical researchers."
As Rev. Berg points out, religious repositories may make a particularly appropriate
choice for Bible records.
NGS and NEHGS
Recently both the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and New England Historic
Genealogical Society (NEHGS) have launched preservation efforts geared specifically
toward Bibles. NGS recently initiated the Orphaned Bible and Family Record Rescue
Project and invites people to send Bibles found "for sale, at used bookstores,
on auction sites, in antique stores, or at tag, garage or yard sales."
They will capture all the information for their Digital Bibles Archives Project
(see
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 90, No. 4, December 2002, pages
301-3 for more information) and then attempt to return the Bible to the family
of origin. If you have such a Bible to contribute, contact Dereka Smith (DSmith@ngsgenealogy.org),
Director of the NGS Member Resource Center.
NEHGS, which has been gathering New England Bibles for more than 150 years,
announced The NEHGS Bible Records Recruitment Campaign last year. They request
that you consider donating your family Bible (or a photocopy of its family record
entries and title page) so the
information can be preserved and disseminated. For more information about this
project, please contact the special collections department staff (Tim Hughes,
thughes@nehgs.org or Tim Salls, tsalls@nehgs.org).
No Excuses!
With all of these options, there is no excuse for any family Bible to disappear
or slip into obscurity. If you are fortunate enough to own one of these treasures,
please consider at least making a copy of the family pages and contributing
them to one of these organizations. And if you are in the process of making
a rescue yourself, please do the same. It's an insurance policy that will only
cost a little time and some minor shipping fees--well worth the investment!
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of Honoring Our Ancestors (HOA) and
In Search of Our Ancestors, can be contacted through:
www.honoringourancestors.com
Resources for rescuing orphan photos can be found at: http://honoringourancestors.com/orphanphotos.html
Information about her HOA grants can be found at: www.honoringourancestors.com/grants.html
Upcoming Events
In upcoming weeks, Megan will be at:
- National Genealogical Society 2003 Conference
(28-31 May 2003, Pittsburgh, PA)
- Lake Erie Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society
(1 June 2003, Erie, PA)
- New Jersey Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society
(7 June 2003, Passaic, NJ)
- BookEnds, book signing
(9 June 2003, Ridgewood, NJ)
- Central Jersey Genealogical Club
(10 June 2003, Hamilton, NJ)
- Westchester County Genealogical Society
(14 June 2003, White Plains, NY)
- Genealogical Society of Rockland County
(14 June 2003, New City, NY)
- National Austin Convention
(22 June 2003, Richmond, VA)
- ZCMI Center Deseret Book
(17 July 2003, Salt Lake City, UT)
- FEEFHS International Convention
(18-19 July 2003, Salt Lake City, UT)
Details and links to upcoming events can be found at:
www.honoringourancestors.com/schedule.html
Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com.
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