MONO MONDAY : HERITAGE

Heritage : property that is or may be inherited; an inheritance; 
a special or individual possession.

I suppose because I am the eldest grandchild, I inherited this large Family Bible, which contains the names and dates of birth of not only cousins, but also, written in his own hand, those of my maternal grandfather and grandmother and their three children, i.e. my mother and aunt and uncle.

However, although I have researched my family history extensively, I cannot find a birth certificate for my maternal grandmother and cannot go back with any documentary evidence beyond her, which is very frustrating.  I thought I had found her birth certificate, paid my £12 and sent for it, only to find it was the wrong birth date!

My grandmother’s name was Mabel Gertrude Williams, when she married my grandfather, Alfred Reginald Randell, but my mother seems to think she had been adopted and the name Rout was mentioned.  Then the mystery deepens, because inside the Bible, in my grandfather’s writing are the words “Received from Mabel’s father on June 24, 1933, George Rout, aged 71 years.”  

Apparently, my grandfather was a General Dealer - but in those days, they would have been known as a Rag and Bone Man.  I found the death certificate of a George Rout, who was a Scrap Dealer, so this could very well be my great-grandfather, but there are many twists and turns in the family history before his death in 1943.

Going back to the Bible, I wonder if it was one that my great-grandfather, George Rout, picked up on his travels as a Rag and Bone man, because there is an inscription, written in beautiful copperplate, to a “Mrs Deane, with the kind love and best wishes of Mr. & Mrs Charles Crofse (Crosse) - October 12th 1850.”  The actual date the Bible was printed was M.DCCC.XLVI or 1846 and of course, it is the King James Version complete with Roman numerals for the chapters of the books.

I have been helped by assistants in the Local History Department of our library, and also very recently, a Blipper, who does Genealogical Research, and they all agree that although I have done all the research and documented the evidence, I may never find out for sure who my great grandparents were.  All the more annoying, because on my grandfather’s side, I can go back as far as 1795!  Ah well, guess another year’s subscription to Ancestry might uncover something - I hope so - I'm just going to ring them now to see if they can give me a better renewal deal.

Interestingly, I thought that underlining verses in a Bible was a relatively modern idea - I do it all the time in my Bible - but I was obviously wrong, as these verses are underlined, in pencil, in this 170 year old Bible:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans VIII : 38-39
King James Version