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Show THE FAMLY BI3LE MISSED. Individual Records Are No Longer Kept with Exactness. 1 ho fan lly nible, with Us ecnea!og leal loeord, served a tncfttl pttrposo In Its day," aid tho llb.:.r:...i, "and I don't see that, with a'l c t: boasted advance In c:..ll:jtlon. v.e havo developed de-veloped i.ntl,luB qalto tn take Its place. Of course, tiowaJiys, cities and towns prldo themselves on tho aceit . cy ol tholr vital stillstlcs, and wo have whole libraries cf genealogical genealogi-cal works dry enourjh most of them nrf, too. nut the Individual family rtiord, such as was kept a fow con-ciailons con-ciailons nro, Is very decidedly miss Ihk, and It's a pity that i-uch Is tho case. "For one thing, tho list of births, marriages and deaths that were kept In tho pon ' rous olitmo of Holy Writ operated to keep tho members of the family cIoeo to ono another; It was, In a way, n central point, valuable val-uable for cshtlmontal reasons as well as for reasons more distinctly utilitarian. utili-tarian. As scribe succeeded scribe, tho family continuity was emphasized and tho entries were significant of tho growth of a clannish feeling, which Is t j littlo In evidence at tho protent time. There are not, I venture ven-ture to say, very many people In this year of graio v. ho know anything or care anything about their relatives fm titer removal than tho degree of first coue. isiilp, and even first cousins cou-sins nro liuqitcntly out of mind. Of course, our tt.-.doncle3 aro responsible larsely for this stato of affairs, but I often wish that we had reminders of our kin, such as were furnished by tin family Illble of past days with their direct personal testimony, amounting to messages from parents to children. henever I sco ono of these pages filled with careful entriesentries en-triesentries mado In Joy and In sorrow, sor-row, In tho confidence of prldo of llfo or by tho trembling fingers of old age. It seems to mo that wo havo lost something In our hmrled existence that Is to be regretted. Wo can go to tho city or town clerk or, perhaps, to tho public library for Information as to our nncestry or our relatives, but this Is a rather cold and formnl method of procedure. Certainly, wo do not find In official records and In books tho handwriting of our foro-benis." |
