Recently I was contacted on ancestry.com by my third cousin, I’ll call her “Eliza”, about a Family Bible that had belonged to Sheldon Moore’s father, Roswell Moore II (1761-1847) or “Squire Moore” as he was sometimes known. Eliza wanted to know if I would be interested in seeing pictures of the bible which included an inscription by Sheldon Moore. I couldn’t have replied, “Yes!” any faster.

Eliza explained that the bible had been handed down to her by her father, who apparently had got it from his mother, who was a Moore. Eliza’s grandmother must have gotten it from her father, who got it from his father, who was Sheldon Moore’s son, Charles Moore of Southington, Connecticut, who is me and Eliza’s mutual great-great grandfather.

The bible is from 1791, and assuming that Roswell Moore had bought it that same year, then he would have been 30 years old, married for 4 years and had two children, John and Dimmis. The inscription reads, “Family Bible of Ros’ll Moore 2nd of Southington, Conn. Sheldon Moore 1861”.

Eliza tells me the bible is in bad shape. The back cover has fallen off and if it ever contained any precious family information, then those pages are missing.

This is not the Family Bible of Roswell Moore that is mentioned in Ethelbert Allen Moore’s book, Tenth Generation. E. A. Moore was the grandson of Sheldon’s brother, Roswell Moore, Jr (1793-1857). That bible belonged to the first Roswell Moore (1728-1794) and did contain family information, as recorded by Sheldon Moore in 1810. I don’t know if that bible is still in existence. But if it is, my guess would be that one of the descendants of Roswell, Jr. has it. They seem to have all the good stuff.

Still, Eliza’s bible is a priceless, family heirloom and I’m thankful that she shared the pictures with me.