Diaries are the "meat and potatoes" of genealogy

Diaries are the "meat and potatoes" of genealogy. They bring your ancestors to life with the stories they have to tell.

So from April 20th until June 20th, visitors to the Lambton Heritage Museum, located at 10035 Museum Road, R.R. #2, Grand Bend, Ontario, can view “A Lifetime – Day by Day, Five Women and their Diaries”, on loan from the Archives of Ontario.

The five panel exhibition provides important insight into the everyday lives of early Ontario pioneer women during the last half of the 19th century.

The women featured are -

•Martha Hastie, “Marty”, the daughter of a Presbyterian Minister who started her diary at the age of 13.

•Katherine Beatrice Edgar, whose father was a Member of Parliament, kept a journal of the many social events and activities she enjoyed when her family lived in Ottawa.

•Phoebe Holden Gregg’s journal spans several stages of her life – from her marriage in 1849 to the last entry at age 62 in 1893.

•Bessie Gregg Stewart, Phoebe’s daughter, also began her diary on the day of her marriage. She wrote her diary in Clinton from August to December of 1880.

•Frances Tweedie Milne wrote her diary when she was 18 and living on her mother’s farm in Whitby.

Since this is a travelling exhibit by the Archives of Ontario, contact your local museum to see when it is coming to a facility near you.

The website is at http://www.lambtonmuseums.ca/

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

 

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/04/canadian-week-in-review-20-april-2015.html

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

 

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

PEI Diaries, Family Histories, and Memoirs

The Island Register, a newsletter from Dave Hunter of Prince Edward Island, has put on Diaries, Family Histories, and Memoirs on his online site.

Some of them are -
1939 Travel Diary of John Winsloe - diary of an 80 year old Guernsey Cove man's ten thousand mile trip"

J. Henri Gaudet's series, Tignish Tellings - a history of the town and people of Tignish posted with the permission of his brother, Charlie Gaudet

The Murder of Robert C. Cudmore

The Yorston Family of PEI

A Northport Kitchen Table Interview: Reg MacLellan and Wilf Gaudin on Alberton and Rumrunning Times - taped interview transcribed by Faye Pound.

History Of Greenwich, P.E.I. - by Beverly Sanderson

History Of The Myers Family In Hampton, P.E.I. - by Raymond Myers in about 1972

The Lauretta Brooks Diaries - Summaries from 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1935

1900 Trip to Europe From P.E.I. - Albert Prowse, Merchant, Murray Harbour

My Connections to the Andrews, Day, and Smith Families - Eda Pearl (Nicholson) Pursey

There is an additional 20+ interviews, and family histories on this particular web site.

Go to http://www.islandregister.com/diaryindex.html