{ A beautiful old Bible }

When we first moved to Texas, within the first few months, we were asked if we would like to have an old piano.  It had belonged to Aunt Ana, who was my mother in law's aunt, her mom's sister.  

We hadn't really thought about ever owning a piano, but Nick showed interested and we also thought it would be quite wonderful to have a family memento.  A big, really heavy, memento!

That was the first time I had ever heard of Aunt Ana.

During the last family reunion, I was busy with the family, hosting, making food, taking of the house and making sure everyone had what they needed. When my husband's aunt brought out a few big storage tubs full of different things that belonged to her parents, I wasn't present. 

 

I didn't really even think I should be present, seeing that these were family mementos, that were being offered to the numerous family members present.  But, my husband's family has always made me feel like one of them, counted me in for everything and never look at me like just Curt's wife.  They consider me their cousin, niece, granddaughter, daughter in law and so forth.

 

So they had already set things aside that they knew I would love and called me over to gift me these things.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was to be not only considered but thought of to have some of these precious belongings.

 

I showed you the vintage clothespin bag in a previous post, but along with that, I got a few other things, that I just need to take photos of to show you.

 

One of the items that they offered to Curt and I, saying that they think we were the perfect ones to take it and love it, was this gorgeous old Bible.  

 

I was in shock.  This Bible belonged to Aunt Anna, and it dates back to the early 1800s.  It is falling apart, the front cover is completely lose, and the back cover is barely hanging on.  Each page is yellowed, tattered, some actually torn which is heartbreaking, but it is still such a beautiful bible that we will forever treasure.

Imagine holding such an old book in your hands.  There is something almost surreal about it.  The way the it is written, the way the books are displayed in roman numerical order and even the illustrations here and there throughout it's pages.

I haven't yet had much time to sit and look through it, I just quickly flipped through and did notice that one page in the new testament was torn with the bottom half missing.  I'm not sure if any others are missing or torn, but then again, taking into account how old this bible is, it's not surprising, especially since it had been sitting in a storage tub for years.

It also contains a marriage certificate dating back to the 1800s, and pages for births and deaths.  It was quite fascinating looking through the accounts recorded on there.

 

Just look at those dates?  Wow!

 

This is history playing out in our hands.  For someone who loves history as much as I do, you better believe this is a huge blessing and such a wonderful item to have in our home.

Some deaths the family members were older but there are some in here, from infants and children very young as well.  It is quite sad, but then thinking back to those days, it was quite common to see these kind of early deaths happening. 

I've always wondered how these parents were able to get through these losses, when some would lose child after child.  It's heartbreaking.

Anyway, I promised I would show everyone the bible, so here it is.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it, and I really can't wait to have some time to sit down with it, and look through each page.