| Last updated at 8:52 PM on 29/06/07 |
Recording the past with journals 
DIANA TIBERT 
The Amherst Citizen
The other day, my eight-year-old came into the house with blood dripping from his knee. He had been riding his pedal bike and towing his older sister on her bike. When the bikes collided, he had skinned his knee.
Using the first aid kit, I cleaned, creamed and bandaged the wound. While my son recovered, I filled out the accident report book included with each first aid kit. As usual, I read some of the other entries made over the years. By far, bike accidents out numbered the other cut and scrape accidents, and this boy had more accidents than his two siblings.
I had never given thought to what would happen to the book once it was filled or no longer needed. I began it for comic relief for the wounded as they nursed their minor abrasions.
However, after this most recent accident, I know what will happen to this precious record of my kids’ childhood booboos. It will be filed in the family tree folder. Not only will we enjoy reading it later, but on a more serious side, if one of the children suffers a mysterious pain in the future or if they wonder where a particular scar originated, we can refer to the book to see if a childhood accident might be the cause.
Then I thought about the other journal-type books I keep. Besides the children’s baby books and their journals, I also have a summer journal, camp journal and Christmas journal.
One might ask, why are these books important to genealogy? Because when I write in these books, I always mention births, marriages, deaths (usually including a copy of the obituary), birthdays and anniversaries. I also write full names (in brackets for familiar family members), ages, addresses, relationships between two people and when someone moves or visits from afar.
All journal pictures are dated along with the place it was taken, names of the individuals and their ages are recorded.
My children will know what occupied their time during their childhood, but they will also have a record of our immediate family history. Although our lives seem humdrum right now, in years to come, we will find the details interesting. And if any survive for my great-grandchildren to read, I think they will be entertained by the way life was ‘back then’.
An interesting diary was posted on The Roads Taken: Some Founders of The New World website (http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/i/p/Richard-C-Ripley/PHOTO/0022photo.html) by Richard Ripley. Herbert William Ripley and his wife Emma Theresa Read, both of Brookdale, Cumberland County, kept the 1911 diary while travelling from their Nova Scotia home to Ontario and the USA to visit family member formerly of the province.
Researcher’s File
When and where was John Hall born? In 1791 at Annapolis Royal, John married Nancy Anna Munro, daughter of Colonel Henry Munro. Their great, great grandson was W. L. Hall (1876-1968), Chief Justice of NS. His daughter was Mary Margaret Hall Stanfield. Contact: Barry Hall, 102-2286 Henry Ave., Sidney, BC; phone: 250-656-5122; email: jessbarr@shaw.ca
Diana Lynn Tibert is a freelance writer living at Milford, NS. Submit queries to: RR#1 Milford, Hants County, NS B0N 1Y0; email: tibert@ns.sympatico.ca
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