I work a 12-hour swing shift (5:30-5:30) and yesterday's run on day shift pretty much wiped me out. Up at 3:30 am... work... get home at 6:00 pm. I made it to 8:30 pm before calling it quits for the day. Spent all of today home with my 1-1/2 year old daughter trying to keep her out of mischief... and failed. LOL
My grandmother's side of the family was two, maybe three, generations direct off the docks of Oslo, Norway. My grandmother and great aunt would go back to the "old country" about every ten years or so. In fact, I found out that the chest this book came out of was actually either her father's, or grandfather's, that was sent here by cargo ship to America from relatives in Norway. It is labeled with "America" spelled "Amerika". Both my grandmother and great aunt were avid readers but I don't remember either having many religious based books around the house. They were both into travel and my great aunt was a personal assistant to a very long-running city mayor (30+ years) and she traveled all over the world. I suppose it is possible the book was passed down through the family to my grandmother, but I would think unlikely.
I'm liking vodkafan's suggestion about a connection with the Quakers as there are at least three pretty solid settlements of Quakers here in Wisconsin that migrated over from Pennsylvania sometime in the 1700's. All are within 2-1/2 hours driving time from me. It might be interesting to make contact with the main Quaker churches in those areas and send them the magnified image of the inscription with the name from the title page... see if it gets recognized. If this is valid I would wonder how it got into the my grandmother's hands? The only possible connection I can think of there is that my grandfather, who died long before I was born, was a very strong and well connected Free Mason. I don't know if there even would be a connection there as I know nothing at all about the Free Masons, other than they are a pretty tight-knit group... just pulling at straws.
Another likely scenario, and this was suggested by my mother when I told her about this website, is a family friend that I've only met maybe twice in my life... she's English, and a life-long school teacher. Mom filled me in on some details over the past couple of days. Her name is Joan, that I always knew. She came to America in the mid 60's as a young exchange teacher through a city-to-city program (great aunt Joyce's connection) and lived with my grandmother for her entire year here in America. Yup, also an avid reader according to mom. The three of them (Joan, Joyce and grandmother) remained friends the rest of their lives and I do remember Joan coming here to visit at least three times but I only saw her twice, the last time being around 1983, or so. I could very well see Joan being the link to how this book made it over here and into grandmother's chest which had all kinds of odd personal stuff in it.
The really interesting thing is Hayley's reference to the penciled in 3/6 on the inside front cover. If the book was sold for 3-1/2 shillings at some point, then maybe it didn't come over with the Quakers as a gift and more likely made the trip with Joan during one of her trips back to America (or home after one of Joyce and grandmother's trip to Norway/England). I doubt the two would of bought the book themselves while in England, if so, why would it be in the chest of stuff???... you would think it would have to of been a special gift of some sort.
I guess the reference to the price would be determine it... is 3-1/2 shillings typical in the late 1600's where it might have been purchased to be handed out as a gift for the Quakers' Atlantic crossing??? Or, is this more typical for much later in time where it would mean the book had to of been in England well after the Quakers left and more likely linked to Joan or some other means to come to America??? Hayley... any ideas here prior to 1836?
I have noticed some very faint words written in the margins towards the front of the book when taking pictures of specific pages. Part of me really wants to go through that book page by page for more clues to it's history. I've hesitated to touch it as much as possible since Stanford confirmed it as a match to their copy. The image with the hand in it (wife's) was one of three sent to Stanford... ever since then I have worn latex gloves and have left it alone knowing it is very likely the real thing. LOL Wouldn't it be cool if you could get a "God's-eye view" movie of an object/person as it/they moved backwards through time and see all the places and events that took place around it/them??? Well, it's 11:45 pm here so it's time for bed. Have a good morning everyone!
Mike
