Discover Your Own Shared History: Begin Your Genealogy Search

Everyone has a story about who they are and how they got to be where they are. Genealogy is the study of tracing your family lines. When you start to look closely at the historic documents, pictures, and records of your ancestors – putting all of those pieces together can begin to weave a rich story of who you are today or it can leave you with many more questions. Most people will hit “dead ends” during their genealogy journey but with help from knowledgable people – sometimes you can learn helpful ways to fill in the gaps.

One way that western Christian families recorded important events was via a Family Bible. Inside the book are blank pages where important records were written down such as births, deaths, marriages, and christenings. The Grace Museum has one such book in the History Collection – although with very little family notations inside. This book is a nice example of what similar Family Bibles would look like at the time.

Getting started on your Genealogy research can feel intimidating and overwhelming. Thankfully there are many helpful people and resources available to assist you at the Abilene Public Library and via online and digital sources. Watch this brief overlook at getting started and working with Ancestry.com’s system specifically.

The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments, translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised ; together with marginal references, Apocrypha, concordance and psalms. The text conformable to the original edition of the year of our Lord, 1610, and the American Bible Society’s standard edition of 1816; Published by: William W. Harding, 1867., Collection of The Grace Museum, Gift of Mrs. W. Norton Jones

DOCUMENTS AND TEMPLATES FROM THE ABILENE PUBLIC LIBRARY:

Find these resources and much more at the Abilene Public Library.