Hi Lesley, You are absolutely correct as usual. From what I know of Henry and Sarah Copas they were "as poor as church mice" and I don't think that religion would have played a part in their lives, let alone own a bible. I have a photograph taken in the 1880's of Sarah and the lace on her dress is full of holes. She looks a very sad person. Regarding tossing family possessions, when my Grandmother's estate was broken up I told my mother that I would like any photographs that anyone else did not want. She very proudly presented me with about 20 studio photos and 40-50 family snaps, then told me that there were 3 suitcases of photos that she did not think I would want so they were thrown out to the local tip. I was not a very happy person but what could one do? There is a family bible from my mother's paternal line that is jealously guarded by a second cousin. She kindly let me photograph all the pages with entries. I also have a photo album that was brought out from England by this family in 1845 but unfortunately there are no names in it. I now swap digital images of photos with other interested family members and have collected quite a remarkable collection. Unfortunately some of the people cannot be named but they are all treasures. Cheers, John Caling Currimundi, Qld. -----Original Message----- From: aus-pt-jackson-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-pt-jackson-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Lesley Uebel Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:23 PM To: aus-pt-jackson-convicts@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PJ] Time travel - recording But John.... :) Your gggg etc grandparents may have used a method to record the family history way back in the 1820's i.e.. a family Bible. One may have been passed down one line only to be tossed by someone who was not interested and certainly didn't want a record of a convict on the family. How many times as that happened! How many times do we see family Bibles up for sale? How many times do we find old photographs that have been tossed out by someone for sale at the local markets? Computers are commonplace these days, but we don't know what will be available in say, 200 years. Some people upload their family history onto various web sites but we just don't know if these will still exist in 200 plus years. Lots of copies of the written word - I hope will survive and be retained by at least a few who are interested. Regards Lesley Uebel mailto:ckennedy@bigpond.net.au CLAIM A CONVICT http://users.bigpond.net.au/convicts/index.html