Genealogical Research 

All Wayne Rethford remembers about the man who approached him is that he was from Springfield.  Wayne can be forgiven for not remembering much else about the man.  This was 16 years ago, and they spoke for only a few minutes.

 The conversation took place while ethnic groups were displaying their histories at what was then the State of Illinois Building in Chicago.  Wayne, who lives in Lombard, is president emeritus of the Illinois St. Andrew's Society, an organization dedicated to all things Scot.  He was there to talk to people about the society when he met the stranger from Springfield.

 The Springfieldian told Wayne he felt guilty about a book he had purchased at a flea market.  

 "(He) asked if I would be interested in a Bible that once belonged to a Scottish family,"  Wayne recalled a few days ago on his blog, "Scots Great and Small, People and Places".

 "He told me how he had obtained the book.  He had gone to a flea market and saw the book for sale.  As he looked at it, he realized that it was a fanily history that once had been a valued possession.  He felt it wrong to have this family possession lost, and so he bought the book and had kept it for several years.  He promised to mail it to me on his return home."

 Wayne didn't know if the man would follow through.  But a package containing the book arrived at Wayne's home a week later.

 People often use pages in familly Bibles as a way of keeping track of their family tree.  This wasn't exactly a Bible.  It was more of a book of devotions and scriptual writings.  But whoever owned it had begun a detailed family history in it.

 That is why the Springfield man thought it would be valuable to somebody.  So he mailed it to Wayne.  Interestingly, the package from Springfield had no return address or name.  Curious, that.

 Inside the book was written: "John Robertson and Christian Douglas were married at Dollar, Clarkmennarshire (sic) Scotland on the 24th of April, 1857.  Births of our children:  John was born in Melbourne, Australia on 24th of February 1858.  Christian Hall was born in Pentland Hills, Australia, on 16th of April, 1860.  May on the 15th of February, 1862.  William was born at Ellenford, Scotland, on the 10th of March, 1865 and died in Washington Co. Illinois 21st of July, 1866."

 Wayne didn't know what to do with the book, either.  He didn't locate the family because there were too many unanswered questions.  Did the descendants still live in Washington County, in southern Illinois?  Or were they living in Springfield?  Where was the flea market at which this book was purchased?  Springfield?  Washington County?  Or some other place?

 For most of the past 16 years, the book has been on display in the museum.  It is in the Scottish Home, a retirement facility near Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.  The St. Andrew's Society has operated the Scottish Home since 1900.  The museum and Scottish-American Hall of Fame are in the basement. 

 Wayne says the book needs to be taken out of the museum and returned to the family to whom it once belonged.

 "It looks like someone's family history," he says, "and I couldn't just let it be thrown away.  If you look at the family, they went from Scotland, all the way to Australlia. ...It's such great family information.  Someone is searching for it."

 From the information in the book, the family must have come to Illinois in the mid-1860's because their son, William, was born in 1865 in Scotland and died a year later in Washington County.

 The book is leather-bound and tattered from use.

 "There's a great story in here somewhere," Wayne says.

 He remembers that the stranger from Springfield was "emotionally touched by the book and just didn't want to let it go without trying to return it."

 Things have come full circle.  Wayne feels the same way.