A bible can be a great source of information about your family. As is often the case, it can be incorrect or misleading. But it can be verified by other sources, and if that turns out to be the case, that bible handed down to you can serve as an excellent reference.
If you are going to cite your family bible as the source of your family history research, the citation should include the information on publication and its provenance (names and dates for people who have owned the bible). Here is an example:
1. Family data, Dempsey Owens Family Bible, The Holy Bible (American Bible Society, New York 1853); original owned in 2001 by William L. Owens (put mailing address here). The Dempsey Owens Family Bible passed from Dempsey to his son James Turner Owens, to his son Dempsey Raymond Owens, to his son William L. Owens.
See - and you thought it would be complicated. If there is a place in the bible you want someone to look in order to substantiate a specific piece of information, you can add the page number. As always, I want to reinforce that the point of all this is for you, or someone else many years from now, to be able to find this specific source. Whatever you have to write to make that clear, is up to you.
This just gets easier all the time!
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