Library of Virginia Bible Collection

I received an e-mail from a reader that I wanted to pass along and comment on further:

"...You might mention to your readers that you don't have to be a Lee, Houston or Jefferson to have your family Bible on record at the Library of Virginia. They don't make it clear on their website, but they will be happy to photograph or photocopy an individuals family Bible record entries to include in their archives. These are then available for genealogical research. It also makes a safe back up in case of damage to the original. I recently went through this process with my Johnson Ivey ancestors' Bible dating back to 1799 in Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Continued good luck with your project, Ed Miller"

Well, what Mr. Miller states is very true. The Library of Virginia does have a large collection of Bible copies for patrons to search. This collection can be found online and is totally free. I will put a link to it below.

If you want to submit a Bible, I think they prefer that you bring it in but you can probably submit copies through the mail. However, I think there are some authenticity and quality issues if you do not bring in the actual Bible.

If you take your Bible to the Library, you will probably have to leave it for a few days as there is always a backlog in the scanning department. I know that they will not accept donations of entire Bibles (meaning the actual, physical book), they just do not have the space. They will refer you to the Virginia Historical Society for such a donation.

If you go to the following website it should look like a search box for the archives and manuscript collection. The Library categorizes Bible records in this thread so search here for them. I would recommend that you search by last name, maybe county. Just searching the word Bible brings up too many, unrelated entries.

Check out the Library of Virginia Bible Collection Here!