Rather strangely nobody gave me a diary for Christmas this year; we have the family desk diary, but I had nothing to put in my handbag until Thursday when one of my colleagues, knowing my interest, gave me a Family History Diary she had spare.

This dairy contains in a hadbag size booklet lots of useful addresses both actual and web based, as well a week per page engagement diary - so far so useful. However, note the name of the diary: Family History.

Note too the first piece of advice they give to someone starting out on family history research: START with yourself - write down when and where you were born and married and details of your children. Do the same for your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents until you can go no further.

Now, I ask, where is one of the best sources for detailed information about family members?

Answer: In their diaries.

It isn't just the entries that provide information, but the page at the front with the name, address, birthdate, phone number, national insurance number, emergency contact etc. and the list of family birthdays and phone numbers at the back. In fact, without at least the name on that first page, the remainder of the diary may well become less useful as a source of family history.

This Family History Diary has no place for either at the front or the back.

One of my most fascinating sources of information I have is my mother's diary for 1953. This was the year my parents got married and notes of all the preparations for the wedding, and a list of all the places they visited on their honeymoon (as well as a very brief account of the Great Gale and the floods which devastated the east coast (see below), and of how they celebrated the coronation in Cleethorpes) are included in the text of the diary. At the front are address details (which in this case I knew, but which would have been useful in a more nomadic and less talkative family) and at the back - a list of wedding guests, a list of wedding presents and - best of all - her housekeeping accounts week by week from April to the end of the year, as well as measurements for and money spent on the wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses, and the going-away outfit.

It isn't a private diary recording thoughts and feelings, but this fairly sparse record of events none-the-less makes fascinating reading.
Diary - Great GaleDiary - Great Gale2
Above is an example of entries scanned from the diary and put together with the photos my parents took as soon as it was possible to go for a walk on the prom. It's all right for me - I started my family history research when I was six years old - but note the profusion of names - Uncle Joe, Aunts Mary and Gwladys, Mr. Ellicott, Jack . . . I know who they all were and remember 3 out of 5, but - cross checked with the other information at the back of the diary - what a wonderful source for somebody who came to family history later in life after everyone they could have asked was dead.