The Family Bible - Part I

I told my mother that I was serious about studying the history of our family and she anointed me as the designated family historian. With that designation, she contacted a family member and told her that she wanted the family bible returned to her. According to my mother, this bible included names that would mean something to me as I began to study the family. In 2004, I received a call from my mother indicating that her Minster Rev. Pennington from Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans would pick up the bible in Covington, Louisiana and bring it to her. So, when I visited New Orleans my hometown, Mom told me that the bible had arrived and that it now belonged to me. Well, I was looking for a tiny book and instead she brought me a big box with this big old bible with worn fragile pages and writing in pencil with names and events recorded. I had no idea who made the notations nor could I determine the date of the bible. After checking amazon.com I discovered that the bible was produced around the 1895 Combination Pictorial Family Holy Bible Self-Pronouncing Translated Original Tongues Conformable to 1611 Copious Marginal References, Chronological Tables & Many Important & Valuable Aids to the Study of the Holy Scriptures 2000 Illustrations by Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington (1895).

I noticed that although this may have been the same bible described on amazon.com, the entries in the bible was clearly entered by a number of people based upon the handwriting. In addition, some of the dates entered were much earlier then the publication date of this bible and may have represented a family members effort to document everything known about the family. Also, the old bible had duplicate loose pages of the same vital records, i.e., two pages for marriages, births and deaths. The bible appeared to also serve as a diary for someone because I noted statements in the bible – for example- my Dear Friend Viola died today at 2 pm. So, how did I use this bible? I was told that my great great grandfather was a man named Peter Clark and that he was listed in the family bible. My first task in going through the bible was to find Peter Clark. On this page, Peter Clark is listed as being born in 1855.