Today is “Dear Diary…” Day.\u00a0\u00a0 Keep a Genealogy Diary–with entries made, in detail–preferably every day.\u00a0 A legal, usually well-preserved source.\u00a0 Sought by libraries and archives everywhere–contemporary record of\u00a0 what happened.\u00a0 And to whom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Write it down.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Add to it.\u00a0 Make your entries “chatty.”\u00a0 The way you would speak to your family as you relate what you did.\u00a0\u00a0What prompted you to action.\u00a0 Why you attached importance to your actions.\u00a0 Who else was involved.\u00a0 Where you stood, and what you took from the shelf.\u00a0 Add comments on the colors, the size, the format, the contents, the names important to you–whether you found them present or not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Step-by-step,<\/strong> as you proceeded, describe the whole scene–so we can follow in your footsteps.\u00a0 Doing what you did.\u00a0 Saying what you said.\u00a0 And accomplishing something valuable with our lives as you do.<\/p>\n Keeping a diary is becoming a thing of the past.\u00a0 Do you write in a diary every day?\u00a0<\/p>\n Neither do I.\u00a0 Oh,\u00a0I went to a local stationery store and bought a diary–with blank sheets, not a fill-in-the-blanks book.\u00a0 I’m changing my ways–going to keep a diary and record all of my life.\u00a0 First, for myself:\u00a0<\/strong> so I have something to refer to which has some factual\u00a0accountability built into it.\u00a0\u00a0Second, for my family:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 when I am no longer around, they can see how\u00a0I\u00a0responded to my daily experiences.\u00a0 They will have an authentic\u00a0source they can go to to learn of me.\u00a0 If there is a bias–it will be my bias!<\/em><\/p>\n And third, for my <\/span>ancestors:<\/strong>\u00a0 I’m adding my ancestors to my genealogy research list.\u00a0 About time I got mine in order!<\/p>\n My ever-so-many-greats-grandfather kept more than 38 volumes of diaries.\u00a0 Day-by-day he recorded aspects of his life.\u00a0 He jotted down facts about his family and how he felt about each one of\u00a0 them.\u00a0 He chronicled his activities and all his doings for his work, and his church, and his countries–his birth-land (Wales)\u00a0and his adopted land (Utah, USA).\u00a0<\/p>\n When he emigrated to America, he described how he left his beloved sister standing on the shore with her small children gathered around her skirts.\u00a0 How bitterly she wept, because\u00a0she couldn’t go with him.\u00a0 How devastated he was because he could not bring her too.\u00a0 Would he live to see her again?\u00a0 And, later, how he schemed to send for her and her family–including her husband and his brother-in-law who had steadfastly and stubbornly refused to consider emigrating.\u00a0 All his plans were successful, for she arrived a few years later with her whole family in tow.<\/p>\n When he returned to Wales to settle the estate of his mother, he recorded all her property and things–room-by-room on the pages of his diaries.\u00a0 These pages were copied into the court record verbatim rather than create another version.\u00a0 He even drew each room with furnishings and hangings so he could place a value on each item.\u00a0 Each entry recorded neatly and precisely in his own clear, fine hand.\u00a0 What a treasure to have such\u00a0documents.<\/p>\n And scattered through the volumes, are more than 40 different recipes for restoring hair!\u00a0 No picture of him is available to us.\u00a0 Just these gosh-awful, fowl-sounding (and I am convinced equally fowl-smelling) concoctions to rub on and swill down.\u00a0<\/p>\n So let me encourage you, too, to change your ways–if you don’t keep a diary.\u00a0 Begin.\u00a0 Write it down–your life.\u00a0 And please include a blow-by-blow description\u00a0of how you traced your hardest-to-find ancestors.\u00a0 You will discover that each account can become a session in how-to-research ancestors.\u00a0 “Twill inspire, motivate, and instruct us all.\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n PS\u00a0 And stay tuned.\u00a0 Big gaps in posts will disappear, as I share the many evidences hard-to-find ancestors have piled on me these past few months!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today is “Dear Diary…” Day.\u00a0\u00a0 Keep a Genealogy Diary–with entries made, in detail–preferably every day.\u00a0 A legal, usually well-preserved source.\u00a0 Sought by libraries and archives everywhere–contemporary record of\u00a0 what happened.\u00a0 And to whom.\u00a0 Write it down.\u00a0\u00a0Add to it.\u00a0 Make your … Continue reading