Articles on finding and using manuscript sources.

• Stowe. Making Sense of Letters and Diaries -- written for the historian, but of great use to the genealogist too
• Carmack. Dear Diary: Discovering Your Female Ancestors
• Diary Research: A Guide to Selected Library and Web Resources.
• Hatcher. Finding Private Papers
• Hatcher. Using Private Papers in Research
• Prescott. Diaries and Letters of Our Ancestor

Finding what has remained in the family...

• See if there is a family association. Lists can be found at Genealogy.com Family Associations Addresses and Web sites.
• or check Petty. Directory of Family Associations. 4th Ed. (find in a library)
• Kindred Trails Surname directory will point you to web sites centered around a single ancestor.
• For other links, see Cyndi's list section on Family Associations and Newsletters
• Find distant relatives on a surname query board.
  Combined rootsweb/ancestry message board
  Genealogy.com message boards
• Google "XYZ family Association" or "Smith Family" or

Finding what is in the hands of strangers...

• Search either of the two boards mentioned above for words such as "diary" "letters" or "photographs" -- sometimes people who find a diary post a query there.
• E-Bay: try adding the words "antique" or "old" to diary, journal, bible, letters, etc.

Finding Diaries

• Arskey. American Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of Published American Diaries and Journals. vol. 1 1492-1844 / vol. 2 1845-1980 (find in a library)
• Cline. Women's Diaries, Journals, and Letters: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1989.
• American Women's Letters and Diaries: A bibliography (0nline)
• Forbes. New England Diaries, 1602-1800 (find in a library ) Includes published and manuscript diaries, as well as other resources such as account books; limited to New England families.
• Havlice. And so to Bed: A Bibliography of Diaries Published in English
• Matthews. American Diaries, an Annotated Bibliography of American Diaries Written Prior to 1861. 1945. (Find in a library) Lists only published diaries.

Finding Diaries and other papers that have been published or put online

• $ If you are a subscribing member of Godfrey.org (any level) you can access these Alexander Street Press Databases
  • Oral Histories Online
  • In the First Person: An index to letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives
  • North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
  • The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
  • North American Women Letters and Diaries
  • British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
• More and more diaries are transcribed online now. Often these are diaries that were earlier published as described above. Links to several diaries published online can be found at Diaries, Memoirs, Letters and Reports Along the Trails West. and The Oregon Trail: Diaries and Trail of Hope: Overland Diaries 1846-1869 .
• An example of letters that have been transcribed and online can be found at Terry's Texas Rangers. Like many letters that have been saved and collected, these were written during civil war years. The Virginia Military Instate has a listing of civil war letters, diaries and papers in the VMI Archives.
• A nice collection of a variety of sources that have been transcribed online can be found at the Prince Edward Island Register's page of Diaries, Family Histories, Memoirs, etc.

Publishing a Diary ...

The Diary of Louise B. Hancock has been carefully researched and supplemented with contemporary sources. It is a beautiful example of how a diary can be presented in a way that makes it come to life.

The Diary of Martha Ballard is used to illustrate a number of lessons on finding and using diaries.

Finding material in trusted repositories

See my separate page on Archives.

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Bible Records are treated separately on this site.