Bible Hunters!

The United States of America is rare in being a nation whose identity has been married to Christianity and the Bible since its founding. This has lead the Bible to often be at the center of the family, and of family life. This means that to people like Earlene Scott the Bible is not only God's word, but also a source of history for motvated Bible Hunters.

Scott has reunited Bibles, or information from Bibles, with about a dozen families. Data recorded in the Bibles by families that owned them provide many descendants with family history crucial in tracing their ancestry.
"They now can hold it, touch it, and hopefully share it," she said. "When each piece of the puzzle begins to fit into place in your own family, you're just that much closer to knowing who you are and why you're the way you are."
In August, Scott e-mailed Marti Thompson, 61, of Milford, Ind., telling her she had found a German Bible purchased by Thompson's great-great-great grandfather in 1830, a discovery that enabled Thompson to trace the family tree back several additional generations.
"It's hard to explain," Thompson said. "It gives me goosebumps. It's just exciting to me to know who my ancestors were."
Scott, a 60-year-old military retiree and genealogy buff, got hooked on Bible hunting more than 10 years ago when she found - but didn't buy - a Bible at an auction in Alabama that belonged to a secretary of the late Gov. George Wallace.

Does your family have a "Family Bible"? What kind of history does it hold about you and where you came from?