Diaries & Letters » General Resources

American Ancestors - The Wonderful World of Manuscripts

Article by Timothy G. X. Salls, from the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

Diaries, Memoirs, Letters and Reports Along The Trails West

Digitized Diaries | The Diary Index

This list of open-access, digitized diaries is designed to assist students and scholars interested in studying diaries in manuscript form.

EphemeraSearch

EphemeraSearch is an online database of old mail. We're on a mission to digitize the world's old postcards, letters, telegrams, and other ephemera so genealogists can search for their ancestors' correspondence. EphemeraSearch helps genealogists, historians, linguists, and other truly curious people who want to find old postcards, letters, telegrams, or other ephemera involving specific people or places. Our images are transcribed and indexed by name and address for easy cross-referencing with census records.

GenealogyMagazine, Episode 3: Diaries and Journals (YouTube)

Discover how facts were uncovered about an ancestor

Historic Journals

Contribute journals, photos, and documents to your FamilySearch tree.

Legacy QuickGuide: Ephemera: Genealogy Gold $

The Ephemera: Genealogy Gold Legacy QuickGuide

Legacy QuickGuide: Preserving Old Family Letters $

The Preserving Old Family Letters: Tips from an Archivist Legacy QuickGuide

Letter Archive Project

Letters from American Civil War, the Great War, World War II, and more.

Past Voices: Letters Home

Free genealogical and historical collection of vintage letters. These are letters written to and from soldiers and everyday people. Find your ancestors, build your family tree, submit a letter, or read helpful articles.

Philatelic Genealogy

Find old postcards, letters, and envelopes. A searchable database of old envelopes and postcards gathered from postal history collections. Old envelopes and postcards can reveal an immigrant ancestor's place of origin, a family's migration after their arrival, or the location of siblings.

What to Do with a Diary You Have Found

From DoHistory. If you are lucky enough to find an old diary, here are some tips for what you could do next.

Your Guide to Locating and Using Diaries, Letters, Personal Papers and Other Home Manuscript Sources

Links and bibliography to help the researcher locate such sources as diaries, correspondence, and other personal papers.