Grandfather's diary

I never knew my Grandfather. He died in 1936. I was born many years later. However, because I have the privilege of owning his diary, I can share his life whenever I want to. I can also share it with others. That is what this project is all about. I hope you will help me with the project by sending me links or other suggestions. My e-mail address is at the bottom of my welcome page. There are three parts of the diary. The first is the diary itself. It was written in a legal ledger. He must have been making entries before his Mother presented him with the actual book because you will note that the date he received the book is later than the first entries which I assume he transcribed from another source.

Before he gave the diary to my aunt, he edited it. Often he made notes in the margins of the page. Some he was able to put in between the lines. I have followed the following rules to keep the diary as close to the original as possible. If the edit was made in the margin or at the end of the entry, it is in a separate field. If the comment was embedded in the text it is enclosed in brackets []. Parenthetical comments he made at the time he wrote the entry are in parenthesis (). Due to the age of the diary, some of it is not readable. These are noted with ?? on either side of my best guess as to what I can read. If the entry is totally unreadable, there will just be ??.

And finally, I have resisted the urge to correct grammar or spelling. He was mostly self educated but often the same words are spelled correctly and incorrectly on the same page or even in the same entry.

The other parts of the diary are person names, and place names. I am working on finding ancestors of the people mentioned to further the story. I am particularly interested in a woman whose maiden name was Belle Pearson. I know that she is deceased, but she may have living descendants as she did have a daughter. Perhaps someone knows what happened to her.

I will be adding links to place names or to historical references. Since most of this story happened in Minnesota, Montana, Washington State, and Oregon I am hoping that people with knowledge of the places mentioned will offer me suggestions for interesting links.

I will also be adding my own diaries, stories, art, and that of my current relatives and/or friends. Since I know nothing of my biological greatgrandfather, I am hoping to discover his story as well. I am finding that I am getting to know many people here on the WEB involved in the same types of projects. I will also be including links to their projects. If you will allow a small editorial... These are true histories of America. Kids who hate 'history' will find as I do that Mystory is the best history of all.

1