In case anyone was wondering, or if you haven’t looked over at the families listed to the right, Belle is the daughter of Chauncey and Adaline. At the time of this writing she is about 26 years old and has been living in New York for awhile. I think it has been about a year since Adaline has seen Belle. It surprises me that it has taken her this long to mention her thoughts about Belle, they have been there for 10 days already! Mothers seem to be the first ones to notice if something is not quite right with their children. Apparently Adaline is no different. She even compares their weights!
Inflation
Here is a fun site that adjusts dollar figures for you based on past inflation rates. I am not quite sure how it works or how accurate it is, but it is sure is entertaining!
So I can enter $65.00 (since that is how much Carrie will pay per acre) and voila! Today each acre would be worth $1,460.66. I wonder how they figured out how much she should pay? How much was land really worth? Like was that a reduced amount because she was family or was that really the market value of land back then? Anyway, if you run across some old dollar amounts, maybe you can use the calculator, too!
Finding Other Journals
By that I don’t mean that I am looking for modern journals telling all about people’s current day-to-day lives (although I enjoy those, too), I mean that I have wanted to find other examples of old journals/diaries/letters that people are making come to life through the magic of blogs. I tried basic internet searches for awhile but didn’t really find what I had in mind. I wanted to see how other people presented their information and to just see more history up close!
I gave up looking for awhile until I ran across Grandma’s Diary at the blog party. She is currently posting pictures and diary entries that her Grandma wrote when she was just getting to know her Grandpa. Through her, I then learned about this site that lists a huge amount of genealogy sites. I have been enjoying looking around there.
One of the more interesting pages to me was focused on diaries and letters. There is some great information linked on that page, so if you have an old diary or some letters sitting around and you have wondered what to do with them, check it out! Try this site, titled “What to do with a diary you have found” if you want to know where to get started.
Or maybe you don’t have any old family letters, but you have always really really wanted one. You can just go right on over to e-bay and pick one up for yourself. Apparently you really can find anything on e-bay!
It’s a party!
This is a little detour from our typical posts from Adaline and about life in 1895. Since Adaline is always seeming to visit with friends and family as she makes her way from Bellwood, Neb. to her parents’ place in New York, I thought she might be interested in this party! It is all about bringing mommy bloggers together for some fun, to meet some new people, and to win prizes! So check it out if you want to play along!
Here is a little bit about Adaline:
At the time of this journal writing, she is 56 years old. She has four living children who are beginning to get married and have children of their own, so she is at a place in her life where it is possible to get away from the family farm and travel a little bit. Like many people her age she is being called upon to come take care of her parents’ things since their deaths. And so we find her on a journey back to where she was born and where she last saw her parents. She appears to have a wonderful faith that we get glimpses of along the way.
Feel free to look back at where we have been and then to stick around to see what is ahead!
A Burch Tree 