The Robertson Bible

One Reeves researcher hit a brick wall in his Reeves research that lasted twenty-one years until, during a 1996 visit to the Tennessee archives, he discovered the James Robertson Family Bible. Prior to that discovery, he had traced his Reeves line to probable ancestor John Reeves in Tishomingo, Mississippi. He had also connected John to his brother William Steel Reeves and had photographed William's tombstone in the Georgetown Cemetery in Texas.

When he saw the Robertson bible’s hand-written family birth records, suddenly he knew he had made a huge breakthrough. Therein he found the birth of William Steel Reeves recorded with the exact same birth date as the tombstone in Texas. Along with William’s birth, he found the birth records of William’s siblings: John (his ancestor), Thomas, Betsey, and Dorinda. William’s birth was actually recorded twice, the first entry identifying his father as George Reeves.


The researcher, Gerald, soon figured out who James Robertson was as well as his wife Charlotte Reeves Robertson. James Robertson, revered in Tennessee as the father of middle Tennessee and co-founder of Nashville, married Charlotte Reeves, sister of Gerald’s ancestor George Reeves Jr (and my ancestor Jordan Reeves) and heroine of the Battle of the Bluffs.

Over a period of years, working with other researchers, and with the help of DNA testing, this discovery led to many more breakthroughs and definitively identified this Reeves family as belonging to the Rives family of Reliques of the Rives, by James Rives Childs.

In addition to the children of George Reeves Jr and the children of James and Charlotte Reeves Robertson, the bible also contains records of numerous nieces and nephews of James and Charlotte.

For more information about the Robertson Bible, see this link. Reliques of the Rives is available on ancestry.com