A decade ago, Joe Florea was cleaning out a vacant storage unit in an Oakland Park warehouse when he made an unusual find — a leather-bound tome dating back to 1870. The book, Hitchcock’s New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible, was rich with history. Tucked inside its pages were two preserved roses, a high school graduation program from 1886, and handwritten family records of births, marriages, and deaths. Florea turned the aged book over to his wife, who stashed it in a bedroom closet and forgot about it — until a few months ago.
Jane Florea, 51, an advertising executive at The Miami Herald, rediscovered the book while decluttering and decided it was time to trace its roots. For help, she turned to Kim Garvey, genealogy librarian at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Within a few hours, Garvey discovered the long-lost interpretation of the Bible likely belonged to Essie Beers Osborne, a Connecticut woman born in the 1850s. “It’s just an educated guess,” Garvey said. “It’s a matter of using deductive reasoning. I used the timeline to put people in certain places. The person who wrote in this book made it very easy.” At the back of the 1,159-page book are three pages of carefully scribed names, written in a calligraphy-like cursive with purple ink. The records document vital events — births, marriages, and deaths — between 1880 and 1915. The heads of the family noted are Erza B. Osborne, born in 1822, and Elizabeth Hitchcock, born in 1829. Garvey believes that the book, a guide to the Bible with genealogies of biblical figures, maps, and a pronunciation guide, was given to Essie Beers Osborne as a wedding gift in 1877. Though the book is rich with history, it’s not worth much monetarily, said Nora Quinlan, director of the reference at NSU’s library. Quinlan worked with Garvey to track down details about the book, which is bound in its original leather and has gilt-edged pages and illustrations. She searched a book dealers’ website and found four copies of the book for sale, with prices ranging from $50 to $165. The dealer selling the most expensive copy emphasized that the book chronicles the history of a Topeka, Kan., family from 1838 to the 1960s. “These books were very popular back then and are not unique,” Quinlan said. “But what makes them invaluable are the family histories inscribed in them.” Personal mementos also add to its charm. Tucked between the pages of the book Joe Florea discovered were several items likely intended as keepsakes and memories of life’s important events. The record-keeping in the book stops in 1915, possibly when the owner died.
The book’s journey in the 94 years since then, and how it got from Connecticut to a cardboard box in a South Florida storage facility, remains a mystery.
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