[I finished this post a bit early…]
I don’t have any diaries or journals from any of my ancestors. However, one of my aunts—my father’s sister, Anna who was a Roman Catholic nun (her name changed to Sr. Mary Camilla) and lived in Victoria, Texas, always wrote our family letters. I have stacks of them. Many were handwritten, while some were typed. This same aunt also compiled a one-page typed family narrative back in the 70s that I was able to use to trace many of my paternal ancestors. Auntie also kept a scrapbook and she wrote dates and caption, (see sample page below).
I thought it was interesting how there was a story or insight shared with each photograph. For example, she would identify my father as “brother” and not “Johnny” (“Dad and brother making our coal bin,” “Brother in the Navy,” “Mother and Brother”). My father said she always referred to him this way.
Copyright 2010 Lisa Alzo
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What a treasure. My husband's mom was one for captions and they are cherished now that she is gone. They give a sense of her personality still.
You are so fortunate to have had ancestors who notated their photo albums. o, how I wish mine had done so, t'would make my life so much easier.
BTW, thanks for the Fearless Female series. Even tho I was out of commission for the first part of the month, I am going to "catch up" — great idea.