A single old, hard-backed photocopy of pages from a family Bible got me started on my genealogical quest. I had always been interested in my family history and my mom showed me this old, worn photocopy of a bible page that my grandmother had. On the right side were a bunch of names, in very old handwriting; one dated 1775 (!) and birth dates. On the left side there was a copy of another bible page placed over the original left hand side of the Bible (what was underneath??). Names on the right side were unfamiliar to me and my mom (my grandmother had passed, so we couldn’t ask her): Moore, Wyatt, Ford (we think), and Lacey. My mother knew the Lacey name as that was the name of her grandmother (my great grandmother): Sallie Lacey, who married Asa Clark Rogers, Sr. The left side of the page were mostly Rogers and their birth dates, which was my mom’s family and she know some of these names including her father, Asa Clark Rogers, Jr.
So my mom and I set out to find out who these people were. My mom knew that the Rogers and Lacey family had come from Delaware and, as a child, she spent many summers in Frederica, Kent Co., Delaware, where her father was born. She still had cousins there and in the early 1980s we went to visit them, where they helped fill in some details, but there were names on that right side that they were not familiar with, either. We visited the Barratt’s Chapel cemetery in Frederica and found several of the names on the left side buried there.
As a newbie family historian and living near Delaware, I spent many hours at the Delaware Archives in Dover, Delaware (this was way before Ancestry and FamilySearch). I eventually located all the people on these bible pages and all of the people on the right side were related to the Moore and Lacey family of Sussex County, Delaware and the people on the left were the Rogers family that married into the Lacey family and were from Kent County. A summary of my findings was published in the Delaware Genealogical Society Journal (V.4, No. 1, April 1987, p.18-20).
Right side:
Vincent Moore Son of Issac Moore and Agnes His wife was borned the 1st day of March 1775
Sarah Moore wife of Vincent Moore was Borned April 12th 1786
Thomas Wyatt Son of Noah Wyatt was borned September 13 1783
Clairiasa Ford wife of Thomas Wyatt was borned 1790
Thomas T. Lacey the son of Zadock B. Lacey and Mary his wife was borned December the 16th 1828
Left side:
Sallie M. Lacey Daughter of Thomas T. Lacey & Clairasa his wife was borned March the 8th 1855
James Lacey, Son of Thomas & Clarrissa A. Lacey was borned November the 28th 1859
Clara Lacey Daughter of Thomas T. Lacey & Clairasa his wife was borned March the 25th 1862
Thomas Lacey Rogers Son of Asa Rogers and Sallie his wife was borned February the 10th 1877
Harriet Lacey Rogers Daughter of Asa Rogers and Sallie his wife was borned January the 2th 1879
Lawrence Smithers Rogers Son of Asa C. Rogers and Sallie his wife was borned August 17th 1881
Asa Clark Rogers son of Asa C. Rogers and Sallie his wife was borned August [crossed out] January the 16 1886
