That's Dad and me holding two diaries. I'm on the left with Henry's diary from 1886. Dad is holding Sarah's diary from 1885. I'll get to blogging Sarah's diary later --- but it is not so complete as Henry's -- some of my female friends suggest perhaps she had less time to keep a diary with 11 kids ages 3 to 24 in 1886! My sense is that neither of them had an easy life! And as you will see, Henry's daily entries are about 50 words long.... hardly a long break from the day's chores.My plan is to publish Henry's diary as though it were a blog. This will be done with photos of the original diary. Each photo is of both sides of the open diary (4 days) - a quite small book, that cost him 45 cents.,, not a small amount in 1886! The diary also includes complete financial records for the year. I'm going to try to blog every 4 days, with the picture of that 4 days of diary entries, and any necessary notes from me to help explain things as I feel necessary or fun. I'll also try to establish a web page listing the family members, etc. to help make it easier to follow the daily events. I hope this is of interest to somebody out there... a real slice of life in rural upstate New York in 1886.
Check back on January 1st 2009 for Henry's blog. He would be amazed, both that anyone cared about his analog blog (diary), and that the world now allows for somebody in Japan or Portugal to read his words 123 years later!
