Bibles discovered in Houston returned to owner’s family

After finding two personalized Anglican bibles, Tarey Walles and her wife Tammy made an effort to return the lost bibles by making a post on Facebook to try to get the word out.

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Since Houston Today first covered the story in early January, Walles has gotten into contact with the original owner’s son Marc Arkinstall, who currently lives all the way in Tokyo, Japan.

“Someone who knew Marc and his family shared our Facebook post on their page and he saw it. It was a super cool way to find the rightful owners of these family treasures. Once he emailed me we corresponded back and forth a bit and he indicated the bibles were the last of the family heirlooms that he would be able to share with his son the history that goes with them. It’s so beautiful to be able to return these to them,” Walles said.

“My wife Tammy actually went to school with Marc, and his father was a teacher who taught her as well. It’s a small world really,” she continued.

The bibles have been sent out, and have reached their home at last, and it turns out they have quite the story.

According to Walles, Arkinstall shared with her that the larger bible belonged his grandmother Margaret, and she brought it with her from Wales when she Arkinstall’s grandfather James emigrated before WWII, around 1935.

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The smaller bible belonged to Arkinstall’s great grandmother Margaret Ascott who emigrated along with the rest of the family.

“My grandfather enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy when things got noisy in Europe, and they moved to Vancouver after the war. James mostly did his tour of duty in the Pacific and then spent the rest of his career as a customs inspector, and my grandmother kept their house in Killarney in Vancouver. James passed in 1983, and Peggy passed in 1985,” Arkinstall said in a letter thanking Walles.