Diaries and Journals

I'm currently working on an article for the Champaign County (Illinois) Genealogical Society's quarterly publication about using diaries and journals as a resource for family history research. For the past two months I have been constructing two artificial collections for our county archives, one consisting of diaries and the other other autograph albums. I can't believe I get paid to look at these awesome pieces of history!

Diaries are a great source for family history information if you are lucky enough to inherit one. The diaries I have been working with in the archives span the years 1857-1958--that's over a century of diary entries! I've chosen three diarists to focus on for my article, all three of whom were either Champaign County pioneers or descendants thereof. Due to intellectual property rights, I can't publish the article here, but I can share my research. I will post a few highlights from these collections soon!