By Pam MansellHerald Writer
By Pam Mansell
Herald Writer
NN OUR BACK YARD, estled between the Old and New Testaments in Louise Galbreath's family Bible is the carefully written record of her great-great-great-grandparents, Anthony Moore and Margaret Smith Selders.
For Mrs. Galbreath of New Wilmington, those pages, stiff and cracked and yellowed with age, are an invaluable link to ancestors who lived two centuries ago.
The first entry in the Bible tells of the couple's marriage: ``Anthony M. Selders and Margaret Smith were united in the Bonds of Matrimony May the 22nd 1804.'' Someone, presumably Margaret, recorded it in elegant script.
On succeeding pages, under the heading ``births,'' comes the record of the couple's 11 children born between 1805 and 1830. The first happy entry is of Elizabeth Selders, ``born May the 17th in the year of our Lord 1805.''
Elizabeth is also the first entry in the death record, which says simply, ``Elizabeth Selders departed this life Sept. 10th 1806,'' leaving the reader to wonder what accident or illness claimed the 2-year-old, and what effort it took the bereaved young mother to duly record the untimely death.
``I'm very much interested in that,'' Mrs. Galbreath said of the subject of family history, adding that she finds it sad that ``a lot of people don't even know their grandparents' names.''
Family Bibles tell a lot of history, even when they don't have a formal record of it.
Betty Ridl of Wilmington Township has both her father's and mother's Bibles, the latter inscribed ``Florence I. Taylor, Chr. 1909,'' apparently a Christmas gift when the girl was 14 years old. But her last name was really Walker, not Taylor, and the simple inscription speaks volumes to Mrs. Ridl.
Florence's mother died when the girl was quite young, and she and a sister were taken in by their maternal grandmother. There were hard feelings between the grandmother and Florence's father, which apparently spilled over onto Florence, who opted to take her grandmother's name instead of her father's.
``My father didn't know till they were married that her name was really Walker,'' Mrs. Ridl recounted.
Then there's the inscription in Mrs. Ridl's own Bible, given to her on Easter Sunday 1932, which says, ``Presented by Mother and Lover.''
Lover, explained Mrs. Ridl, was her father's _ John Mark Rogers _ nickname, earned by his sweet disposition and used by family and friends alike.
Just reading the inscription brings lots of family stories about her father to mind, Mrs. Ridl said, recalling the time when young John was about 6 years old and got really sick from eating green bananas. An elderly aunt delivered a stern warning about gorging on food that wasn't good for him, ending her lecture with, ``Now you know the meaning of temptation.''
``So the next time he said the Lord's prayer,'' Mrs. Ridl said. ``He said, `Lead us not into bananas.
While Mrs. Galbreath and Mrs. Ridl's Bibles are a source of family history and memories, Tracy Hoy's collection of old Bibles and prayer books is a tie to old friends _ as well as evidence of an enjoyable hobby.
The Wilmington Township woman said she's been collecting old books since she was in sixth grade. One of her favorites is an 1851 prayer book covered in blue velvet and fastened with a small gold clasp. That was a wedding present from one of her mother's friends, she said.
Another is a small, leather-covered Book of Common Prayer, also dating from the 1800s, whose covers were carefully stitched back in place by some owner long ago. This, Mrs. Hoy said, was a gift ``from the friend who got me interested in collecting old books.''
A 1902 German Bible from her husband's family is another of Mrs. Hoy's collectibles, as is a small 1918 volume of the New Testament. But the value of the books is not measured in money, Mrs. Hoy said. Rather, it's in the history they represent, and the memories they bring to mind of friends and family.
Pam Mansell covers New Wilmington for The Herald.