Over the Christmas holidays I received an email from Cheri Devlin, who lives in rural Victoria Australia. She spotted this series and asked if I'd put a note on the board that she has the Bible for George Brown Gelling.

I will quote the pertinent part of her note:

"About 10 years ago, when I was living in Sydney, I visited an antique centre and purchased an old bible. It has an inscription in the front and for all those years I missed an interesting piece of information, I only deciphered it today as I was rearranging my study. As the bible mentioned ''Pittsburg, via U. S. America'', I had always assumed it had come from the US.

"The book is embossed with a stamp Duke Street, Douglas ( I had to use a magnifying glass) which showed up as being on IOM. Then I realised that a second inscription said ''Killed at Pittsburg via U. S. America ....(still can't decipher) 1864, aged 23.'' So perhaps he went over to fight.

"The first inscription is

George B Gelling
With his mothers best wishes
Douglas
Oct 1 1857

"Then follow the death details, as mentioned first.

"On the opposite page, the mother has written

G. B. Gelling
In remembrance of his uncle GBG
Jan 20 1882

"I had a quick look at the Family Search LDS page and there is a person listed as being born around the right time and place. The mother has perhaps given the bible to the son of Georges brother or sister.

"I am not after anything, and I don't really want to part with the bible, but I thought someone who is related might like a photocopy or scan of the inscription. I know I would be really pleased if something turned up like this for my family." [end of quote from Cheri]

If anybody would like to write to Cheri, please send a note to me (egelling at shaw dot ca) and I'll forward it to her to follow up.

The nephew George Brown Gelling (Edward Gelling's grandson by second wife Mary Brown) is not related to me, but he is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria BC where I live. When I was about 12 (eons ago!) I was riding my bicycle through the cemetery with a friend and parked my bike against the back of a stone to look at something. When I returned to get my bike, my friend noticed the stone was for a Gelling. It was George Brown Gelling's stone that I'd leaned my bike against.

So here he is again!

Regards,
Eric Gelling