Bound volume containing family records in the hand of Henry Keppele (Johann Heinrich Keppele; f. 1-11), ca. 1780s, followed by copies of 8 poems, in a different hand (f. 13-18), copied ca. 1839-1843; and many blank leaves at the back. Two title pages written in a hand other than Keppele's bear the title: Johann Heinrich Keppele, seyn Familien Buch; on the first title page, the name Elizabeth Helmuth also appears. She is likely the copyist of the poems at the back. Keppele's records about his family comprise the following parts: 1) biographical information about himself and his wife (place and date of birth and baptism; godparents; parents), including a brief narrative about his ship voyage to Philadelphia when he immigrated in 1738 (f. 3r); 2) a numbered list of the Keppeles' 15 children, with biographical information (dates of birth and baptism; godparents) (f. 3v-4r); 3) a paragraph concerning the death of Keppele's wife in November 1774, followed by a poem (f. 4r); and 4) a section of the book in which a full page is reserved for each of the 9 children who survived into adulthood, in the order in which they were married (according to heading, f. 4v), with the names of their spouses, and financial accounts concerning Keppele's gifts to them as their inheritance, including details about financial arrangements he entered into on their behalf. In the case of the 7 children who died in infancy or childhood, their date of death and age at the time are noted in the same list with their birth information (f. 3v). For two of Keppele's grown children, George Heinrich and Friedrich Wilhelm, lines concerning their dates of death (in August 1782 and December 1785, respectively) are inserted in the same list. It appears that Keppele wrote out the main part of the records at one time, at some point after his wife's death, probably in the 1780s, and then added some details over time. Of the poems at the back, the first is Hope (Reflected on the lake I love) by Reginald Heber (f. 13r). The others include: 2 poems copied from an 1839 issue of Fraser's magazine (f. 13 r-v); poems by Mary A. Swift (The Frost; f. 14r-v), George Herbert (Judge not the preacher; f. 15r), and the financier Nicholas Biddle (To Miss K--ne; f. 16r-v); and a humorous poem (Sneeze; f. 17r) first published in Leigh Hunt's London journal. The last poem, The Song of the shirt, by Thomas Hood (f. 17v-18v), was first published in Punch in 1843.
