Murchie Family Bible

A Family Bible contains successive generations’ recording details about a family's history. This information usually consists of marriages, births, deaths, baptisms and confirmations. Other items, such as letters, newspaper clippings, photographs and even pressed flowers might be placed inside the Bible as mementos of family events. They were common in the 19th century. Today, Family Bibles are sought out genealogical resources.

This Bible was presented to Judith Ann Buck Murchie (b.1800) by her mother Judith Ann Hughes Buck (1768-1833) in 1827. The handwritten family register starts with the marriage of Matthew Murchie to Anna Boyd in March 1680 and continues to the last recorded entry of the death of Marion R. Murchie in 1906.

Note the connection to the portrait of Catherine Harrison Murchie in this exhibition and to the companion portrait of John Murchie in the Valentine’s exhibition, This Is Richmond, VA.