It’s day 13 and today I’d like to take you back… wayyyy back; well before our family was founded and even well before Liz or I were born.

Yesterday I talked about things from the past that act as vehicles of memory or at leas as a connection to the past, even if they were too early for us to attach memories to them.

Curious? Keep reading…

Is this first Christmas Memory post you’re seeing?
You can get caught up by starting back on day 1 to understand this year’s theme.

Two Old Bibles

There are two old family-related Bibles that came into my possession years ago and while they not, per sé, particularly Christmas-related, these photos of them were taken beside the Christmas tree way back in 2012… that still counts, right?

QEII Coronation New Testament

I found this among my dad’s belongings after he passed. My mom spent a good deal of time, slowly going through the house & belongings, before downsizing to a condo after dad’s passing. Among those things was the New Testament.

Dad grew up in a very non-religious home. My grandmother was a non-practising Catholic for most of her younger years (although she did practice more in her old age) and my grandfather was so “non-church” that there was even a question as to whether or not he’d attend my parent’s wedding.

Yet, dad, during his younger years was taken to Sunday School by some neighbour I think, at St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Ketepec, (just up the road from Acamac, yes… I lived in the boonies). Dad got this QEII New Testament during the coronation year as they were distributed freely to children in Anglican churches (as they were “The Church of England).

1883 Family Bible

This remarkable Bible was given to a long-gone (& somewhat distant) member of our family, Israel McIntyre, by his grandmother, on April 16th, 1883.

It is in absolutely incredible shape, despite its age and is one of the most beautiful Bibles I’d ever seen. The inscriptions, sketch-plates and images are quite in tact and there is even a 1933 tax assessment in there from Wellington Parish, McKees Mills. He’d been assessed on July 14th 1933 and had to pay the grand total of $4.76 by September 15th, of the same year. (That total included the county tax of $2.91 and the County Poll Tax of $1.81). Oh to pay taxes like that again!

The Bible itself is a work of art and the connection is another root, extending down into our past… but of course, before anything else, it is the eternal, written Word of God… more valuable still!

Both of these Bibles are in Canada still… I hope to bring them to France one day.

Thank you sharing this memory and…