posted by Sandy on Family History Hints and Helps

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It used to be that keeping a journal or diary was a normal part of life.  Generations did it.  Young people began early to write in a journal, to fill it with pressed leaves and bugs.  To collect stamps and notes between its lines.   Living generations  have ceased to have an interest in private, personal journals.  Now, journals are kept for all to see and read on blogs.  That means they are public journals.  They are selective. Designed to show the best of the person.  The best thoughts and the best smiles. They are  not designed for introspection or expressions of gratitude or discussions of a religious nature. Usually. Private journals usually deal with those things. While it is being kept, a journal will be more honest if it is private.  Journals keepers say that they re-read their journals to gain perspective.

If we are lucky enough to find an ancestor’s journal we have found gold.  Journals of the past kept financial records.  Kept track of cattle and horses and crops.  Later journals included migrations and insights and activities.  Many of our ancestors kept journals and wrote personal histories based on those journals.  Journals are like autobiographies but more brief. I have read journals written by people who were not related to me and have loved them.  Most the world’s greatest people, like John Adams, Winston Churchill and Wilford Woodruff kept journals – faithfully.

A journal or diary is an outline for a personal history.  Brief statements in a journal can be expanded in a personal history.  We  think that we will remember things without writing them down but I have learned better.  Over time memories fade, dates become confused, people’s names fade away and energy to keep track of everything wanes.  Faithfully keeping a journal will insure that our posterity knows us since we will not have the chance to know most of our posterity in life.

I have a favorite journal which is now a book.  It is the journal of Patty Bartlett Sessions.  A Mormon pioneer midwife.  When I first opened it’s cover, I thought that it would be hard to read.  After all, Patty Sessions wrote entries in short, often misspelled statements such as “delivered her of a boy”  “put her to bed with a daughter”  “watched my peaches”.  The first time I read it, I couldn’t put it down.  It was so rich in history, in culture, in social interaction, in faith, providing insight into why people sacrifice and the heart and mind of a true pioneer.  What if every family could read journals and diaries left by their ancestors?  Just because it didn’t happen in most families, doesn’t mean it can’t happen in yours and mine.

Even a abbreviated journal is better than nothing.  Even a diary which skips weeks and months and then starts again is better than nothing.  These personal records will be like gold to those who come after us.  Keep one.

Tags: autobiographies, diaries, journals