What is the value in keeping a diary or journal? What will be of interest to our descendants a hundred years from now? Whether we write daily or once a year about the happenings in our lives, it is important to record something. Perhaps by examining the first-hand account of a life lived two centuries ago we will gain insight into what we should write. We’re reading A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812 for Women’s History month.¹ This is an opportunity to celebrate our female ancestors – the ones who aren’t listed in the land,...
The excitement and hoopla of RootsTech 2016 ended last Saturday and I came home with a bag, two new books to peruse, class notes, and lots of pieces of paper. So what’s next?How do I organize everything I collected so I can find it when I need it? How am I going to use what I learned to make a difference in my family history efforts? After attending the Brigham Young University Family History Conference in 2015, I knew I needed to come up with a better method for keeping track of my conference paraphernalia! I had started using Evernote to...
Do you know of a diary or journal of a pioneer ancestor that used to be in the family and no one knows what happened to it? Would you like to hold the original and see your ancestor’s actual handwriting? If you suspect you might have an ancestor who left a diary or journal you can follow the same steps I did to locate, view, and share it. My ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1843 in England. During the 1850’s he traveled the area as a missionary. He kept a detailed journal...
