On a recent trip to visit family, my dad showed me an old family bible of the Barns branch of the family. Margaret Barns was my great-great grandmother. In the center of the bible was a series of pages to record births, deaths, and marriages.

Family bibles can be a source of information for genealogy research. Originally, people wrote on the inside front and back covers. In the late 1700’s printers started adding special pages for the recording of information. (Read more about this here.)

It is interesting to see the changes of handwriting across time. I recognize my grandfather’s handwriting at the end of the second births page.

Sylvester and Cornelia were Margaret’s parents.

Judson J. Rogers is their son-in-law. He married Carrie Barnes the same day that Margaret married George Olney Kellogg, on May 5, 1889.

Image shows and ornately framed page with marriages written at the top. Several marriages are recorded in different handwriting.
Marriages in the bible. My great-grandfather Amos’ and grandfather George’s weddings were added.

Deaths were recorded as well.

Image shows and ornately framed page with deaths written at the top. Several deaths are recorded in different hands, with dates ranging from 1855 to 1978.
There was a clipping tucked in with the this page that I put at the top when copying. I’m not sure of the relationship.

There was also a piece of paper tucked in the front of the bible that listed the information for Grace Sterns’ family (Amos Kellogg’s wife).

Family bibles may have accurate information, or there may be errors in them as well. It looks like much of the early information on births was written by the same hand at the same time. It was common practice to give a bible as a wedding gift (and still is in some cultures), and the information may have been added then. Also, we see some nicknames used (Maggie for Margaret), and that can make tracking people interesting, as I covered in this post.