My Uncle Peter found my Great-Grandfather's diary in an old box of things from a relative. He asked me to transcribe it for our Bate Family Reunion today. The diary was written in 1927 when Almon was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hawaii. What an awesome experience it was to see his handwriting and find out about his experiences.
This was a very involved project and my house definitely shows it! I've spent the past few months transcribing the diary when I could squeeze in a moment, but since the reunion was today I spent most of the past week finishing up the transcription and finding historical maps, images, family histories, pedigree charts, and family group records to help get a more complete picture of Almon's life.
Here's a little collage of the project:
Summary of project:
- Scanned each page of the diary (172 pages)
- Transcribed each page (80 pages in document form) with the help of online Hawaiian dictionaries
- Found and copied maps of Hawaii and the railroad line from Utah to California
- Found and copied images of the boats he traveled on and also his gravestone
- Copied Pedigree and Family Group records
- Compiled everything on my computer
- Copied the files to CD's to give away at the reunion today
After the first few pages I was used to Almon's handwriting. The hardest part for me was trying to figure out the Hawaiian words and places!
The reunion today was fantastic! I met many relatives whom I didn't know before, enjoyed handing out CD's and showing Almon's diary, and scanned documents and pictures that some of them had brought. I look forward to getting to know my Bate relatives better at future reunions. :)
2 comments:
That's fantastic, great job! You may have met my parents there, Helen and Farley Anderson. I couldn't go because I was speaking at a homeschool conference. I'm glad it was a nice reunion.
What a fabulous job you did Christina! I'm into family genealoby as well, so I know how much work this took. It' very rewarding and also very educational - and learning of the trials and tribulations sure makes one appreciate our modern conveniences....
J. Kievlan
Post a Comment