The Virginia Room has a small collection of family Bibles and a growing collection of pages copied from family Bible records. The most well known Bible in the collection is the John C. Brickey Bible, donated in 1983 by J.W. Gonterman Jr. of St. Louis, Mo. John Compton Brickey of Catawba Valley was the original donor.

In the past year or so, at least five people have requested copies from the Brickey Bible. The latest inquiry came from Nettie Grimes of Berger, Mo., who has been searching for a connection between her ancestor Lucinda Toadvine and the Brickeys.

Excerpts from the mail exchanges with Grimes show how family research develops.

The first mail from Grimes asked copies of all the family record pages from the Bible. She said she had been researching for a long time and had a “very poor copy” of some of the pages from a Brickey Family Ledger. The Brickeys recorded family information in the back of their store ledger.

I sent Ms. Grimes the Brickey Bible pages and told her I was not familiar with the Brickey ledger she had mentioned. She also asked for information on Comptons.

Since she had been looking for years, I was curious how she just now discovered the Brickey Bible. I also promised to look for references for her in the library’s several issues of a Compton family newsletter called “Comptonology.”

Grimes replied:
I had been looking a good while for documentation for my ancestor Lucinda (surname unknown) who had married “some” Wilson (the parents of my Silas Harrison Wilson). I only knew my dad’s grandmother had been a Wilson. I finally found her family on local census records. I discovered by census records that her father was Silas Harrison Wilson so I began to trace him on marriage and census records.

You can’t imagine how many Wilsons there are until you begin to research them.

Luckily, I happened onto a fellow researcher, Dianne, who is out of Silas’ sister, Mary Minerva Wilson. She was a great help. The census where I began searching was the 1850 Missouri, Crawford County, one and it only had first initials! After determining that the S. Wilson male must be my Silas, I began to look for his M.M. Wilson sister who turned out to be Mary Minerva Wilson.

I had wondered about the 1825 Washington County, Missouri, marriage record of a Lucinda Brickey and Aquilla Wilson. Dianne and I began to piece together Lucinda’s family and learned she was so young when she married first, she needed her father’s permission. Hooray! His name was on the marriage record (Jeremiah Brickey).

Even then, you wonder...is my Lucinda THE Lucinda or not.

We did figure out that Lucinda Brickey married Aquilla Wilson and had several children, and then he died and she married some Odle. W e found their children with her on the 1850 Crawford census, with the older Wilson children in the home, too. She was a widow a second time on that census.

Then, we had a marriage record for Lucie Odle marrying a Henry Morris Toadvine. Her children, thank goodness, were with her on subsequent census with the third husband. Then, I found a record that the Lucinda Toadvine was buried in Lost Creek Cemetery in Washington County. I found her stone broken into three pieces and under briars and yucca plants. It said her name: “Lucinda Toadvine . . . Erected by S.H. Wilson for his mother,” and gave her birth date and age at death. Another breakthrough. Now , I still needed more documentation tying my Lucinda to the Lucinda Brickey of the marriage record.

While I was talking to a man who posts lots of genealogical info online, he mentioned that he had some copies of papers from the Roanoke Library, and he would look to see if my Lucinda was in there. He also had copies of the ledger pages that list Lucinda...her husband Aquilla Wilson...their children... his death ...her remarriage to Tompkins Odle and their children. I was so overcome when I learned that news, I wept.

The Bible Records helped establish my Lucinda’s paternity. Sounds like someone on Montel Williams, I guess.

Oh, another thing .... my Silas had applied for a Veteran’s Pension for injuries from the Civil War. One of the depositions taken was by a notary public that stated Silas had brought in a tattered family Bible with all the children’s names in it. The Notary had typed them all down and put them into the deposition and that was the first time I saw Silas Harrison Wilson’s children.

His pension papers also listed his second wife, Annie Mercer Montgomery Wilson. Wow, I would recommend getting a man’s pension file, too. There in it was the record of his children copied from that old tattered Bible.
—Nettie Grimes

Always need more Bible records
Other Bibles in the Virginia Room collection include two Nicoll family Bibles and two Garst family Bibles, along with the original family record pages (in German) from the Moser family Bible. The Virginia Room welcomes the donation of family Bibles or of photocopies of the records pages from the Bible.

Family Bible records are important because they may be the only sources of information available for ancestors who lived before vital records were required by law. In Virginia, there are no vital records before 1853.

If you locate a family Bible you should photocopy or photograph the entire record on permanent (acid-free) paper. Be sure to include the title page and date of publication of the Bible. Be wary of records with dates earlier than when the Bible was printed.

If the main title page is missing, look for one in the New Testament. If no title page exists, look for any publishing information that might help identify the edition of the Bible or ask a reference librarian to help. Also, always store a copy of the Bible records somewhere other than with the book.

Elaine Powers is librarian in the Roanoke City Library’s Virginia Room.

Comments or questions? E-mail to comments@primeliving.net.