Three Daughters

Who inherits the bible after Mary Ann Bass Reese passes away in 1902?
  I've been assuming that it is Mary Ann who records her parent's births and deaths, her own marriage to Adam, and the births of all her children.  These all appear to be in the same handwriting.  But after she writes in Mary Bell's death in 1878, other hands seem to be doing the scribing.  Her daughters are among the suspects.

Adam Reese has 3 daughters and 1 son; Rosetta and Charles are born in Herkimer Co. NY; Ella and May Bell are born in Reeseville, Dodge Co. WI.   In 1869, Adam sells his property, taking the family and his business acumen to DeKalb Co IL, in the Chicago area. This is only 120 miles south of Reeseville, an easy train ride.  Adam leaves his parents behind in Wisconsin, in the care of his married sisters.

It looks like the same person writing, but it is not Mary Ann, who records the marriages of all 3 daughters in Illinois:

1) Ella Amelia Reese, marries Elias C. West, a Civil War hero, in DeKalb Co. in June 1872.  The 4 West children's births are recorded, but by 2 different people.  It looks like Mary Ann herself enters the birth of her 1st great-grandchild May (Mamie) West in Dec. 1873.  Someone else enters the birth of Roy West in 1876, Gertie May in 1881, and Herbert W. in 1887.  Years later, Roy West's marriage gets recorded by someone in 1897.  The other West children's marriages, or their children's births, are simply not written down. This is one of those big gaps I have mentioned.  Whoever has possession of the bible, doesn't think to enter any of the West family information, although Ella and her husband both live to a ripe old age.

2) Rosetta Eliz. Reese, the oldest daughter, marries Berry Landerman in 1873.  The births of all 3 of her children are listed in the correct order, but are not written by the same person.  The marriages of these 3 Landerman children are also captured in the correct chronological sequence, but not written by the same person; Bessie in 1901, Grace in 1903, and William in 1905.  The only 2 grandchildren of Rosseta and Berry Landerman are recorded in 1905. So all of the Lanterman events in Rosetta's lifetime are faithfully written down.

3) May Bell Reese marries John Travis in 1885.  By the way it is Bell, not Belle, her middle name is her grandmother's maiden name (Adam's mother Elizabeth Bell). It is May Bell probably writing in the births of her twins Charles and Margaret in 1887.  But the following year it looks like her sister Rosetta who writes in the birth of May Bell's daughter Mabel in 1888.

  To conclude this long post, it looks like May Bell participates in making entries, but her sister Rosetta is the real keeper of the bible from 1878 to her own death in 1913.

Handwriting Analysis

The Reese Bible has survived 148 years and traveled some 2,000 miles. The birth/marriage/death records written in several different people's handwriting are easy to read, and they record events of family members in Herkimer County, New York; Dodge County, Wisconsin, and DeKalb County, Illinois.  There are huge holes in these records.  Many events are simply not recorded.  Some marriages are listed, others are not.  Some births are carefully recorded, others are not mentioned.  Some people do not have portraits included.  There are portraits of people inserted in the pages without any hint of how they are related.  But don't worry, I have identified all but one of these relationships now.

  What this appears to add up to, is that the bible changed hands over time.  This is a clue.  Owners recorded events that were important to them, or those that they had direct knowledge of.  I've been trying to analyze the handwriting to distinguish which hands recorded which group of events, and what year did they start/stop.  I hope to match that with death years of our suspected writers, those deaths being the approximate time the bible gets handed off to a new generation.  The suspects come from analyzing what family is being recorded during a time frame and which are being ignored.  I'm using an Excel spreadsheet for this analysis.  I love Excel.
  My guess is that Adam Reese's wife Mary Ann was the first owner of the bible and started recording family events, some retroactively, because the pages start with her parents.  Then in 1902, a different handwriting records Mary Ann's death.