Found: Family Records from Elizabeth Nigh’s Bible
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If you are a descendant of Jeremiah Nigh and Elizabeth (Deats) Nigh, I have wonderful news! In my white-gloved, hot little hands I have the family history pages from their daughter Elizabeth (Nigh) McKinney’s Bible.
About the Nigh Family Bible
I walked into a DAR meeting one morning, and a prospective member handed me some old-looking papers in a plastic Ziploc bag. As the chapter registrar, I thought she was giving me some documents for her application.
What she was actually giving me were the pages from an old family Bible she’d found at a garage sale in Santa Maria, California.
The Bible itself was in terrible condition: the binding was mostly gone, the pages were falling out, and the book was moldy. From what I was told, the Bible was too far gone to salvage.
But thankfully, this kind lady managed to rescue the hand-written family history pages.
Unfortunately, the Bible’s title page was not saved, so it is not known when exactly the book was published.
However, there is a dedication page with an inscription, which at least gives a clue as to who owned the Bible:
Lower MtB township
Northampton County
State of pennsylvaney
the gift of the holy bible from
Elizabeth Deats to her Dauter
Elizabeth Nigh
Nothing more is known for certain about the provenance of this Bible and its family history pages. But I do have a theory about how it came to California.
Below are images of the 5 family history pages rescued from the Nigh Bible.
Who is Mentioned in This Bible?
The following information is transcribed from the Nigh Bible family history pages. Spelling and punctuation are true to the original, but the bullet points were added by me for clarity.
Marriages
- Jeremiah Neigh and Elizabeth Deats was Married on satterday the 19 day of may in the year of our lord 1820
- Mother Barn August 5th 1803 [penciled in between lines]
- Elizabeth Nigh Departed this life on tuesday morning June 25 1867 aged 63 years 10 months and 20 days
- Jeremiah Nigh died September the tenth 1874 In the Seventy Fourth year & three months [penciled in] of his age
Births
- Joseph A Nigh was born on the 15 of januar in the year 1822
- Salley ann Nigh was born on friday the 12 of september in the year 1823
- Mary S Nigh was born on tusday the 5 of apriel in the year 1825
- Emaline Nigh was born on wensday the 3 of may in the year 1827
- Liewis Nigh was born on saterday the 14 december in the year 1828
- Susan Nigh was born on sunday the 16 of January in the year 1831
- william j Nigh was born on satterday the 12 of January in the year 1833
- Jeremyah Nigh was born on sunday 27 of may in the year 1836
- Anny Metildy Nigh was born sunday 26 of november in the year 1838
- Margaret Elizabeth Nigh was bornThursday February 6th 1845
Births (page 2)
- Samuel. McKinney. Born November – 27th – 1838
- Samuel. McKinney. died February – 11th – 1901 – Lived 62 years 2 months & 14 days
Deaths
- Susan Nigh died on monday apriel the 7 in the year 1834
- Sally Ann Sharer Died Tues April the 27 in the year 1845
- Joseph A. Nigh Died munday the 8 1848
- Emeline Penfield died june 6th 1901 – aged 74 years, 11 months, 3 days
- Lewis Nigh died Nov 25 1902 aged 73 years 11 months 9 days
- Mary S. Sharrer died Oct 23 1905 aged 80 years 6 months & 18 days
- Jeremiah M. Nigh died March 28th 1907 aged 69 years & 11 months
- Anna Matilda Nigh McKenna Died June 29th 1911
Bible Page Images
Click to open in lightbox format.
A Few Facts About the Nigh Family
Using the information from the family Bible pages, I did a little research into the Nigh family.
Please note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive genealogy report. These are just a few facts that I found about the family to whom the Bible belonged.
Jeremiah Neigh/Nigh/Nye, the patriarch of this family, was born on 25 May 1800 in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.1“Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Nigh, 25 May 1800. He married Elizabeth Deats/Deates/Deitz, b. 5 August 1803,2Elizabeth’s birth date is noted in the Bible. on 19 May 1820, in Lower Mt. Bethel, Pennsylvania.3“U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Neigh and Elizabeth Deates, 1820. They had at least 10 children together, as is noted in the Bible pages above.
In 1849, Jeremiah received land in Dane, Wisconsin.4“U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Nigh, 1849. By the time the 1850 census was enumerated, the family was living in Verona.51850 U.S. census, Dane County, Wisconsin, Ancestry.com. It appears that Emeline is back in the house with the surname Thomas.
Jeremiah died on 10 September 1874,6Jeremiah’s death date is noted in the Bible. and is buried in Verona Cemetery in Dane County, Wisconsin. His wife Elizabeth died on 25 June 18677Elizabeth’s death date is noted in the Bible. and is buried in the same cemetery.
A few other Nigh family members’ grave markers can be found on Find A Grave:
- Joseph A. Nye (1822–1848)
- Emaline (Nigh) Penfield (1827–1901)
- Lewis Nye (1829–1902)
- Jeremiah M. Nye (1836–1907)
- Anna Matilda (Nigh) McKenna (1838–1911)
Margaret Elizabeth Nigh, to whom the Bible was dedicated, married Samuel McKinney. They had two daughters, Leona and Hermina.81880 U.S. census, Mitchell County, Iowa, Ancestry.com.
Samuel died in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, on 11 February 1901.9“Wisconsin, Death Index, 1820-1907,” Ancestry.com. Also noted in the Bible. After Samuel’s death, Elizabeth is found in the 1905 Wisconsin State Census as “Margaritte” McKinney living in Fairchild. She is the head of a household, living with her daughter Hermina and son-in-law John Anderson.101905 Wisconsin state census, Eau Claire County, Fairchild Village, Ancestry.com.
I have not yet found Elizabeth (Nigh) McKinney’s date or place of death.
How Did the Bible Get to California?
In 1940, Elizabeth (Nigh) McKinney’s daughter Hermina (McKinney) Anderson was a widow living in Los Angeles, California.111940 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles, Ancestry.com. Hermina is a “lodger” in the house. If she died in Los Angeles, and the Bible was in her possession at that time, it could have been distributed or lost with her other possessions.
What is known is that the Nigh Family Bible has likely been in California for at least a dozen years. I found this message dated 7 October 2008 on an Ancestry message board thread about Elizabeth Deats:
The author of the post, ddwilcoxjr1, was waiting for someone from the Deats family to respond and claim the Bible. If that ever happened, the author did not update the thread, nor a similar thread on the Nigh Surname Board.
This could explain how the Bible wound up at a garage sale… but unfortunately, we will never know for sure.
Are You a Descendant of This Family?
The Nigh Family Bible pages were given to me with the intent that they go to a good home with a family member who will take proper care of them. The pages are crumbling and very delicate and will need to be stored in the proper archival environment.
If you are a descendant of this family and are willing to care for these documents, please either leave a comment on this post stating how you are related or send me a message. I will happily send the documents to a new home for the price of postage.
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Footnotes
- 1“Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Nigh, 25 May 1800.
- 2Elizabeth’s birth date is noted in the Bible.
- 3“U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Neigh and Elizabeth Deates, 1820.
- 4“U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015,” Ancestry.com, entry for Jeremiah Nigh, 1849.
- 51850 U.S. census, Dane County, Wisconsin, Ancestry.com. It appears that Emeline is back in the house with the surname Thomas.
- 6Jeremiah’s death date is noted in the Bible.
- 7Elizabeth’s death date is noted in the Bible.
- 81880 U.S. census, Mitchell County, Iowa, Ancestry.com.
- 9“Wisconsin, Death Index, 1820-1907,” Ancestry.com. Also noted in the Bible.
- 101905 Wisconsin state census, Eau Claire County, Fairchild Village, Ancestry.com.
- 111940 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles, Ancestry.com. Hermina is a “lodger” in the house.
What an amazing story–on all counts! I so hope a member of this family contacts you to claim this piece of their heritage.
I so wish the Nigh family was mine! What a treasure to have, with so much biographical information in those crumbling pages. I hope that the pages are reunited with a family member soon. I wouldn’t have been able to resist doing some digging too! 🙂
Wow! Exciting! Please do an update if anyone ever claims it. Hopefully someone will!
So cool that your DAR Member knew who to give this to.
I love the old bibles at garage sales! I wish people knew the value to us to leave the front pages and family information in so we could have help others with the information. How wonderful they left some of the information and you were able to trace. I’ve seen many bibles where all of the pages with any information on them were cut out thinking someone would buy it without the information. But, they are not into genealogy. This is great information to publish as a reminder, Elizabeth – Thank you!