[or-roots] diaries

[Leslie Chapman]

Ronda;

about diaries and letter;
I would say that the answer to that question is yes; another words your
chances of finding diaries in "other places" are about as good as finding
them with family members.

First of all, chances that there ever existed a document that would provide
Suz an explanation for why Thomas came west are probably at most not better
than one in three or one in four; I don't believe folks 120 years ago were
more likely than folks are today to commit that sort of thing to paper. I
probably have never made a move in my life that didn't generate at least one
letter to someone that included the why for, and I suspect most of my family
is the same way, but the general impression I have always had from a lot of
other people is that that isn't "normal," the next problem is, if such a
document ever got written, especially letters, did it get saved. Here again
unless you have packrats like some of my family, no. I have a cousin who
pretty much doesn't have anything in her house but what she uses, the books
she currently is using, some of her husbands art and a few odds and ends of
"keepsakes" most of the rest of the objects she has owned in her life are
gone one way or another. We are "storing" a couple sets of her bookshelves,
but I suspect she will never want them back. Her mother on the other hand
has one 12'x18' museum building packed with "stuff" floor to ceiling and
another building about 24'x48' that the walls are lined with stuff and
tables at one end fill almost half the floor space, plus one older model car
and I believe pre world war II buldozer. The daughter yells at us if we give
her more "stuff", but we do it anyway. Oh and that doesn't include all the
important "stuff" she has in the house.

My point is, the daughter will probably donate the whole lot to a museum, or
I am not sure, maybe create a formal museum with all this stuff, but I have
known other cases where the heir just dumped the whole works.

Now of course there is always the possibility that Suz will find a smoking
gun, maybe even literally like another lister found in their ancestry, where
in a diligent search of Missouri records will produce an outstanding warrant
for the arrest of Thomas Benton Clark, then she will "know."

And then there is another possibility; maybe there really isn't a "reason" I
have followed both my mother and fathers lines back to the east coast, both
sides started west about 1800, mom's family were in the NW by 1852 and Dad's
family took a little longer, arriving in 1903. Dad's ancestors took shorter
hops to get here, arriving in Wisconsin about 1850 or'60 while Mom's
ancestors were in Michigan in 1840 and then jumped right on to the west
coast. As far as I have been able to understand it from what history we
have, they were just "moving on" until they ran out of West to go.

I guess I better shut up.

Les C

snip>	Are these diaries and letters usually found with family members or are
there
other places to find them?
Ronda


> Chances are though unless she finds someone with a diary or letter of
> explanation, Suz will have to be content with knowing he did come alone,
> and
> not why.

She would have to go back in time & find a diary or something that the
family has wrote to explain what she wants to know, maybe.

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