« Genealogy and Vacations | Main | Family News »
Fires and Bibles
By patti | April 21, 2008
I wonder how many old family Bibles were destroyed by fires. Supposedly one of my ancestors Clement Nance had a whole trunkfull of family papers that were destroyed by a house fire in the New Albany, Indiana area.
I recently received my first-ever-ordered pension packet on my Civil War ancestor Albertus Van Hoesen. With the price of copying the file, you get only the first 100 pages and you have to pay extra to get any beyond that. So Albertus’s was beyond that by 43 pages, and so I’m awaiting the rest. I’m planning on transcribing some of the letters contained therein. But one thing that’s interesting and why I think context is so important it that Albertus tells how he doesn’t have any proof of his birth because the family Bible was burned in 1878. That would have just been some little factoid in my brain without any kind of depth of understanding of the reality of it if I hadn’t read before that from the Clarksville Star newspaper about the house of R.C. Van Hoesen (who was Albertus’s father) burning down. (see post farther down).
Even the little, common place things are interesting.
Topics: Genealogy |
April 21st, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Wow– what fun to dig into your genealogy! I am hoping to be able to do that sometime.We had Nate and Amy over on Friday with the F. boys for supper and it was so fun to get to know them a bit better. They are a very special couple, as you know
Are you planning a trip up north this spring/summer?
April 21st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
You are making me interested in genealogy! I hadn’t thought about the true importance of family Bibles before.
I got a kick out of the visit to cemetery comment. I don’t know that I’ve ever visited one to see an ancestor’s grave (other than my own, known family), but I do like to visit cemeteries!
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Thanks for stopping by Susan and Mary. Of course, they’re special.:-) I’m glad you had a chance to visit. I am hoping to come visit, but it probably won’t be until September. That’s when I’m shooting for right now. I have week-long commitments in May and June and possibly July, so I figured September might be my best bet, but maybe August would work out, too. I will drive this time so that the girls can come with me, and I will probably plan to stay awhile and use Nate’s and Amy’s as a base from which to do some genealogy. And the girls would enjoy that–having someone else to be with while I go to courthouses, etc. I’m hoping to integrate some US history study with genealogy next year, so they won’t avoid it totally.
Cemeteries are neat in that you have something concrete that links you to the past. So much is just imagination knowing your ancestor lived in a certain place. My aunt recently gave me two Bibles that my dad had possession of until a couple of years ago when she asked him for them. I was very disappointed to later look in them and find out that the pages with the family births and deaths had been cut out. Horrified actually. It’s kind of like being willing to cut the baby in half following Solomon’s decree.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Family Bibles and other records are special. I keep my journals in a (hopefully) fireproof file cabinet, in case the great-grandkids wish to read them. Cemeteries are so interesting, as well.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I was in the class of 1979, perhaps I would know her. Do you feel comfortable telling me her name?