Beyond Records: Diaries in Genealogy Research

Episode Overview

Hittin’ the Bricks with Kathleen is the genealogy podcast that features your questions and her answers, exploring how overlooked sources reveal deeper family stories. In this episode, host Kathleen Brandt speaks with diary collector and history writer Angie Rodesky about how journals, letters, and personal writings provide granular clues for genealogy and local history research.

Together, they explore how diaries expand your understanding of an ancestor’s world—and why preserving complete records matters for future research.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• How diaries and letters reveal details not found in official records
• Why different types of diaries offer different research value
• Where to find personal writings beyond common marketplaces
• How to organize names, dates, and events from narrative sources
• Why preserving original materials is critical for historical accuracy

Topics Covered

• Angie Rodesky’s path from writer’s block to diary collecting
• Types of diaries and what each can reveal
• Diaries as tools for one-place studies and community context
• Finding diaries and family “lots” beyond eBay
• The risks of dismantling originals for “junk journals”
• Digitizing options, including the Midwest Genealogy Center Memory Lab
• Organizing research with charts, timelines, and spreadsheets
• Research mindset: curiosity and following leads

Episode Discussion & Key Moments

Kathleen and Angie discuss how personal writings—often overlooked—can transform genealogy research by adding context, emotion, and daily detail to otherwise sparse records. Diaries and letters reveal relationships, routines, and events that rarely appear in official documents.

Angie shares how she began collecting diaries and the different types researchers may encounter, from daily logs to reflective journals. The conversation highlights how these materials support one-place studies, helping researchers reconstruct entire communities rather than isolated individuals.

The episode also addresses preservation concerns, including the growing trend of dismantling historical documents for craft purposes. Kathleen and Angie emphasize the importance of maintaining intact records and explore digitization options such as the Midwest Genealogy Center Memory Lab.

Key questions examined include:

• What kinds of clues do diaries provide that records do not?
• Where can researchers find personal writings outside traditional archives?
• How should genealogists balance access with preservation?

Resources & Research Tools Mentioned

• Personal diaries and letter collections
• Local archives and historical societies
• Midwest Genealogy Center Memory Lab (digitization tools)
• Charts, timelines, and spreadsheets for organizing data

Why This Episode Matters

Personal writings bring depth and humanity to genealogy. This episode shows how diaries and letters expand research beyond names and dates—revealing the lived experiences, relationships, and environments that shaped your ancestors’ lives.

About

Transcript

Welcome And Why Diaries Matter

John 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen from the depths of fly of our country and the heartland of America, the Kansas City on the other side of the mighty Mo. Welcome to Hittin the Bricks with Kathleen, the Do It Yourself Genealogy podcast with your questions and her answers. I am John, your humble hubby host, and today we'll be talking to Angie Rodesky about granular research with diaries. There's a lot of being nosy to cover, so let's start hitting the bricks.

Kathleen 0:27

I think Did you welcome Angie to our podcast, John?

John 0:30

I'm going to welcome Angie. Angie Rodesky is with us today. I know the last time you two saw each other, you were on how the states got their shapes, wasn't it?

Angie Rodesky 0:40

No, we've seen each other a lot since then. We've seen each other since then. We're not gonna bring up how Kathleen cheats when we're playing. No, Angela cheats.

John 0:53

If we were all in studio together, I would have put knives on the table and then started this.

Kathleen 0:58

But then since we're all calling each other from our safe spots, then uh So yeah, John, the reason we actually invited Angie about diaries is because you came up with this article that you had read about diaries.

John 1:13

Okay.

Kathleen 1:13

And I thought, well, that's an excellent podcast. And let's have our guest, Angela Rodesky, who I know is a collector of diaries.

John 1:25

The article was from BlackEnterprise.com, and it was uh William and Mary students who were transcribing Reconstruction Era diaries of formerly enslaved women.

Kathleen 1:38

So that was an article, Angie, that John found and he shared with me. And I said, Well, I would love to do a whole podcast on all diaries. Now, John, our listeners may remember Angela Rodeschi from our very first podcast.

John 1:54

It was our first one, wasn't it?

Kathleen 1:56

It was our first podcast. So we're bringing her out of the uh the hiding spots and mothballs of Jeff's City.

John 2:05

Dusting her off.

Meet Angie Rodesky

Kathleen 2:06

They locked me away, and now they're giving me the key to let me out a little bit. And so, Angie, share a little bit about yourself real quickly.

Angie Rodesky 2:12

Well, that time, that video, I was in Delaware at that time. You know, the first state.

John 2:17

Yes. Oh, that's right. Delaware state.

Angie Rodesky 2:20

Um, since then I have relocated and I'm in Missouri now. I am currently working at a public library, which is a lot of fun. As far as any genealogy research or anything like that, it's just for fun that I do now.

Kathleen 2:32

But Angie, you are doing some writing about uh history and oh I yes, yes.

Angie Rodesky 2:38

I do write, I do like writing, and I have been writing. I find it interesting, and some of it comes from the diaries, some of it comes from articles like John just said, that he read, and I call it jumping down rabbit holes, just rabbit holes of research. Whether I'm reading a letter that I have obtained from a um an auction or a purchase that I made on eBay or from some other some other individual that's just given me a box full of stuff that they don't want anymore that has family history in it. I'll start researching to find out a little bit more about that individual or about that time period and start writing about it. So, for example, there was a piece that I did while I was attending SNHU on a female who was a she was a sleuth. She was one of the first female sleuths that worked for the US government who actually captured military personnel that went A-WOL. That's what I've been doing, and I continue to do it, and I can't stop. Because there's so many pieces of history that we're not taught that we don't learn, and whether it was because it was just something that was not thought to be relevant, it just didn't make it there. So we didn't know. We had no idea what was going on. Everything from the lady who I had discussed that was a sleuth to unknown female pirates to the bloody benders who were criminals that I know you had discussed previously that you and I had talked about.

Kathleen 4:01

Actually, the reason we had the serial killers episode was because Angie brought up the Benders from Missouri, and I had to figure out what one is that one, and that's when we did the podcast on the serial killers. Thanks to Angie Redeski.

John 4:16

Angie always bringing the happy to every conversation.

How eBay Sparked A Collection

Kathleen 4:21

So I would like the listeners to know why I called you a diary collector. So tell us a little bit more about that history. Because that's the first thing I learned about you in Kansas City when you were living in Kansas back when the kids were little. So tell me about that.

Angie Rodesky 4:43

So when, and it kind of goes back to how I got my start in genealogy, actually. So I would write stories for my kids. It got to the point to where you know you get you hit that thing they call writer's block. Well, I had hit that block of not knowing, coming up with these stories to create for my kids. So I found this wonderful website called eBay, and this is when we were stationed in Germany. If you haven't heard of it, it's a great website to visit. So I went on there and I saw people were selling what they would call lots, which would be boxes or a large quantity of old family heirlooms, family letters, diaries, baby books, family Bibles. And I decided to buy a couple letters. And then those letters from those letters I found, well, we gotta see what they are in these diaries. So then I bought diaries. Well, there were these stories that I could create, you know, these fictional stories I could create, but then I realized that these people were real. So I had to create, I started researching who these people were and coming up with these stories, and that's when I found my love for genealogy, which was connected to diaries and the stories that are in the diaries. So this one here is from 1945, she's in Los Angeles. I have 55 years of her life in diaries, so I have 55 of her diaries, and this is a five-year diary, so this is the full year of 1945. And I have some like this one here from another lady who I purchased, and these were all on eBay, you know, that wonderful website to visit. She actually did each year, so for instance, on January 2nd, she has 1968, then she has 6970. So she entered just a snippet of what happened that day during that year. And then I realized there's more than five-year diaries. There's daily reminders, maybe something about the weather or something they ate, or family that came to visit, or sick, or so there's information that were in these. So I started collecting these as well as the five-year diaries, in addition to one of my favorite, the trip abroad. So these are diaries that are done when individuals take trips. And this one was actually when a family went to Amsterdam. So this is the family's trip in 1935 on a ship to Amsterdam.

Kathleen 7:11

Are all of your diaries written by people from America or are they everywhere?

Angie Rodesky 7:17

In England, they're not sure. I have I have some from I have two that are from Germany. I have one that is from uh a lady over in London, and then the rest of them are from here in the States. Okay.

Kathleen 7:32

And then when you get these diaries and you said it ties to your genealogy, how and why? You don't know these people, right? They're not your ancestors.

Using Diaries For Local History

Angie Rodesky 7:44

I don't know those people. So they're not my ancestors. It ties to their genealogy, their history. And so through the years, genealogy became it became a form of pop culture. And that was due to TV shows that came out of Who Do You Think You Are, The Genealogy Roadshow, Finding Your Roots. Once those started becoming very popular, people became, I think, I believe people became more interested in genealogy at that time, the younger generation, and even some of the older generations, such as myself and John, not Kathleen Shushak.

John 8:21

Thank you. I'll represent the older generation here. At least I look the part.

Angie Rodesky 8:28

But what it may not be linked exactly directly to my family, to my ancestors, but it does give me a glimpse as to what was going on in that time period that could have affected my ancestors that I may not be aware of.

Kathleen 8:46

So, John, doesn't that remind us of what we talked about with OnePlace Studies? How you can learn about a community in a time frame in a group of people. It's not direct necessarily, but it's still telling you about what your ancestors are going through.

Angie Rodesky 9:03

Exactly. Exactly. And then me being the rabbit hole lover, of course, I want to find out a little bit more about them because there may be a piece of history that's significant to our culture that we may not know about that this family member may have been connected to.

Kathleen 9:17

That's excellent because that brings out a cultural side, right? I mean you get to learn about maybe even a recipe or something they ate.

Angie Rodesky 9:24

Exactly. There was in one of them, I had never seen this before. When you get on a train, here's one of the hat check tickets. This person took the went on the train, and so I have an idea of what that was like. Angie, what's your oldest diary that you have?

Kathleen 9:38

I think 1926. Are you finding that they were more written in m uh war times uh with these people? And were they all women?

Angie Rodesky 9:50

All of them I have are all women. All of the diaries I have are female diaries. Purchasing men's diaries on eBay, it's a competitive market. And I think because men looked at it as being maybe more of a feminine thing, and so they, you know, shied away from it. But I have noticed, again, looking at the travel diaries, those are mainly men that have those. Not too many women have those. And I think most of those are because men were traveling salesmen. So they would note down where they went, what the mileage was, the gas, and they may make a notation in there about, you know, the weather or somebody that they talked to or monies collected. So most of them that I have, like I said, are all they're all women. I don't believe I have one that is a man's diary. I do have a lot of men's letters during wartime that I purchased. Great. I have lots of those, but I don't have the actual diaries.

John 10:51

And that that was one of the things I think that Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, which changed the face of the way documentaries were made, but part of that was because of the focus on the individual. And that was related through those letters that the men were writing back home. And you got so much of the history from the individual prior to any of the find your root shows and things like that. And I think that added a level of personal history didn't really exist before. Because we I my remembrance of learning history in school was that you learned about the other people who were high up in the government, people with power, and the movements of countries, continents, and empires. The individual was almost completely ignored, and their struggles were were often ignored. And so this this focus on the individual has another layer of history in it that has been, like you were saying, neglected.

Angie Rodesky 11:49

Exactly. One of the reasons why I love reading through the diaries and writing stories and researching and jumping down those rabbit holes is because, as you said, these were individuals. That part in our history, those things that happened could not have taken place without these individuals that are not mentioned in those history books that we had in high school or middle school or elementary school. And still to this day, sadly, we still miss it. It's still not there. And the only way to find it is to actually do it yourself. I mean, there was this phrase I know when I started doing genealogy that Kathleen would say uh she referred to like boots on the ground type of research. And that's what this is. This is a boots on the ground to me because I'm going, I'm searching for these diaries, I'm reading, and then I'm going to the archives or I'm going to the historical societies and learning a little bit more about them to actually piece together more of what history is.

Kathleen 12:41

Coming up later on in this month, we actually are gonna have the National Frontier Trails Museum representative Melissa. And I thought of her not only because they had diaries, but they have a lot of other things. But one of my favorite diaries I've ever read is in the German territory of Missouri. Angie, I think your family's from that area.

Angie Rodesky 13:05

Cape Girardo. Probably Cape Girardo.

Where To Find Diaries Today

Kathleen 13:07

Yeah, it was that area. One of the girls left the German community and she wrote right back to her home. And then they both of them, both the mother the parents and the daughter, kept all of their diaries and letters. And I found these at the Missouri State Archives. Beside eBay, have you found diaries anywhere else?

Angie Rodesky 13:31

eBay is you usually my go-to place or for a larger quantity. But I have found them at garage sales, I have found them at auctions and antique stores, which is what's really funny. So some of these antique junk stores, they'll have them sitting there, a stack of them. And of course, I go.

Kathleen 13:50

So do you actually go into the antique store and say, I'm looking for historical diaries?

Angie Rodesky 13:57

I have. I've gone in requesting diaries, letters, albums, family albums. What's funny is now it's it's not, it's actually pretty sad. Because what's happening now is there's this thing called junking. They'll take a book and create a junk book. It's like a journal. It's like a diary, it's a junk journal. To where they create, take old maps, old pages from diaries or letters or photographs, and people will rip them and destroy them and glue them in here and create their own little unique journal. Well, what happens is they're destroying that piece of history or that information that I would like to have to be able to read. So when I've gone into some of these stores and I've asked for these items, they'll say, Well, we have a stack of them over here, and it's a stack to where they've ripped all the pages out of the diary or out of the baby books because people will buy them by the sheet. Who do I who do I send a letter of protest to the back? And now, if you go to some craft store, some hobby store, you'll find where they've recreated those, and you can buy, you know, just reprinted sheets. But some individuals like to have the actual original to put on there for that effect.

Kathleen 15:12

So I think what this is a perfect reason, and I hate to bring politics in that that we need an executive order. This should be illegal.

John 15:24

Wow. Okay.

Kathleen 15:26

I think that's horrible. I mean, this is a real reason to have uh.

Angie Rodesky 15:30

I don't think I I don't want to I don't know if the individuals do it because well, I know why they do it. It's for a crafting thing that they they do, but I don't think they realize what they're destroying, what could possibly be taking away.

Kathleen 15:43

You're right. We want the entirety, we want the full story, we want to feel the the character.

John 15:48

I mean, why wouldn't you just couldn't you just take a copy of it?

Kathleen 15:51

So that takes me to one of the other questions. Angie, have you considered digitizing any of yours? We have a free digitizing station at the Midwest Genealogy Center. Have you considered that? I have not.

John 16:02

The memory lab.

Kathleen 16:03

But that is a good thought. That is something that I could do.

John 16:06

The memory lab. Yeah.

Kathleen 16:08

Um that is free. You can bring your own stuff. They have fast scanners, they have all this information. So then that way other people can see what you do have. You can catalog it or book it or whatever you want to do. Uh she keep the original and but there's these digitized uh.

Angie Rodesky 16:26

Yes, some of these that I have are actually from Missouri.

John 16:30

See, that would be and and I'll tie this into for the one place studies as well. Uh being a resource I'm thinking for a one place study is that if you had a town where persons from in let's say Missouri, in Cape Girardeau, perhaps, and they had their journal entries, then once scanned in, then the one place study that would be in Cape Girardeau uh might have that might be a big city.

Kathleen 16:55

It's a very small, it's not the biggest city out in town.

John 16:58

It's not the biggest one, but it does have the biggest city in the state.

Kathleen 17:02

When you're looking online, what kind of keywords do you use?

Angie Rodesky 17:07

Um Diaries. Antique diaries, use diaries. Oh gosh, what what other words do I use on there? Sometimes I'll put in a county and type in just you know, like Green County, down around Springfield, Missouri, or Green County history. And that's usually when I go on to eBay and I do it. Now I've gone in and and played a little bit with Facebook Market, which that's something new to me. I've never really played with that a lot. As far as, yeah, as far as looking for these types of things, and I haven't been able to pin down the verbiage that individuals use when they put items like that on there. There are times I may come across old family Bible. So anything along those lines, you know, ancestor history, diary, old diaries. So if I go in and I put family lot into eBay, it would be it could be a whole lot of information, letters, diaries, everything about a family.

Kathleen 18:05

One of the things we're doing with the Dr. A. Porter Davis collection that we have featured on our Tracy Ancestors website is we are taking some of his original documents and putting it in the state archives just for that reason, so that people can see, because he kept all of his doctor's appointments, his corner uh information, what he did, and who owed him what money, even. So this reminded me because Angie mentioned accounting. And it doesn't necessarily tell us why they owe it to them, but it's kind of neat if you find your ancestor's name in a time, in a place, and at least you can verify that they lived where you thought they lived.

Angie Rodesky 18:54

And if I can add to that, the other part of that is you get an idea of what the cost of things were during that time and what that life was like. It may not specifically list your ancestor or someone that you're researching, but you get an idea if their life could have possibly been hard. You know, were eggs five cents for 12 eggs? Or was that price low, but yet the cost of lumber was high? So then you're looking economically what were things like during that time? What you know, what was the need?

Kathleen 19:25

Yes, I love the way you use your diaries.

Angie Rodesky 19:28

And what are you doing with them now, Angie? Reading them and taking time to research who each individual is and trying to create a story plan, an idea to write a story. I'm having to slow down a little bit because one of the things that you can run into a conflict when having a large amount of diaries, or even just one diary, there are multiple names that are listed in there, and at times you may have to create a spreadsheet or a chart so you can figure out who is who. As many of you know that do any type of research on your family history, any type of genealogy research? Sometimes there may be five John Smiths, and you just don't know which one it is. So that's part of the reason it's taken time on her with her and figuring out who everyone is. It's a treasure hunt.

John 20:21

So, off the top of your head, what's uh the most memorable event that you've read in one of these diaries, or the thing is something that s has stuck with you uh the most out of all of the diaries you've read?

Angie Rodesky 20:34

Two sisters found out they were dating the same guy. Wow, that's fun. Yeah. From one diary, from one diary, she was mad at her sister because she found out the sister was dating the guy that she liked, and the sister they knew, and so she decided to get her back and date the guy after they broke up. Okay.

Kathleen 20:59

So normally, Sean, that's a soft story for Angie. I remember I used to ask Angie a lot for books that she's read, every one of them. And then they died horribly. They yeah, it's always how they died in the end, or who they were.

Angie Rodesky 21:16

Yeah, they have to be dead. That's my rule.

Kathleen 21:20

However, she did tell me about this one book, and Angie, I don't remember the title. It was about a suitcase found in an old sanitarium or something.

Angie Rodesky 21:31

Okay, so that was um what they left behind. And so there was a um, like you said, a sanitarium that they that had been closed down. And, you know, a lot of these old buildings they go up for sale. This these individuals went in to purchase this building. As they go up to the attic, when they're up in the attic, they see it lined with suitcases. All of these suitcases. So when individuals would be um When they were committed, they would come with a suitcase, or they would come with a bag. Well, when they came with it, it was immediately taken away and it was put up in this attic. Well, when they opened the suitcases, they would see inside these suitcases, maybe some of them had rocks, some of them had baby clothes or baby shoes in there, or they would have diaries or letters that were in there. So what happened was when this was found, there was a group of individuals at a university. I cannot remember the name of the university or the institute where this was at. And see, it wasn't a historical fiction book when I read this. And I jumped down that rabbit hole to find out it was an actual event that took place, and they were actually going through and trying to digitize all of the documents that they had in there, all of the notes, the labels that were on the suitcases as who they belonged to. So those pieces of history, when those individuals, when they passed away or when they left, their stuff was left up in that attic. Their lives were still there.

Kathleen 23:05

The fun part afterwards is to do some research to see, well, what part of this is actually true history.

Angie Rodesky 23:11

One of the books that I recently read, becoming Madam Secretary. Yes. And it was the secretary, and I believe I told you about that one, Roosevelt. And so, of course, I jumped down a rabbit hole. Was she a real person? What was it like? So any type of book like that that has a piece of history. And for me, that was a soft history read, meaning that it there wasn't a mystery in it. To where the one about what they left behind, that was a mystery that I wanted to know more about, who those individuals were.

Kathleen 23:40

So I would say that's a characteristic, John, of a diary collector is you have to be very curious.

John 23:46

Well, I think, yeah, I think it it leads into these are research tendencies, that curiosity that really drives, and it doesn't really matter the subject, but it's the curiosity that really drives the research, the area of study. Your areas just seem to coincide a little bit more.

Kathleen 24:02

But that is how I met Angie, John. My very first conversation with Angie Rodesky. Um, I came to see you speak. It was at Midwest Genealogy Center.

Angie Rodesky 24:12

Yeah. Yeah. And I came in with a document that I had gotten from my uh received from my mom that came from my grandfather who had passed away. That's when I started the research on that that family in that that time period.

Kathleen 24:27

And that's when I found out that she had collected all these diaries previously in Germany.

Angie Rodesky 24:33

From Germany. When she was living in Germany. When I was living in Germany. And then through all of the genealogy conferences we went to, we found one. When you go to the conferences, you know they have the um the booths that are there that you can go and purchase things and do. And there was one booth that was there that I remember Kathleen pointed out, Angie, this is your stuff. This is you, you've got to go see, where this lady would purchase, and she's no longer in business any longer, and I wish she was, but she would purchase things like this, and she would do the research on them, and then she would post them on her website, and people would purchase that piece of history that they didn't even know existed that pertained to their family.

John 25:18

When do you when do you have time to do this? When do you fit this in? I mean, is this is this the the 2 a.m. research uh or is this uh you know, you've got a box by the TV? How does this happen?

Angie Rodesky 25:31

No, it used to be something that I would do all of the time. Well, I mean, when I was doing research and and um moved to Missouri, and actually probably about a year or even while I was here, it was all about the research. And I would do I would read the diaries and do the research on the information that I obtained from the diaries. And it was almost like six hours a day. And it was usually after work that I would do it. The hard part is when you're doing it, it's hard to put it down and walk away. You have to remind yourself to eat, to go to bed, to get I mean, it's it can be very addictive in doing it.

John 26:08

Uh I I'm I'm not familiar with anybody who has those types of issues when it comes to research, Angie. Do tell more.

Angie Rodesky 26:16

Some people refer to it as a cult.

Kathleen 26:21

So, John, this does explain why Angie's four children were always so very hungry. And very independent. And very independent, didn't we?

Angie Rodesky 26:36

They knew where those gold fresh goldfish and honey nut Cheerios were at.

John 26:41

There we go now.

Angie Rodesky 26:43

But now in doing reading through the diaries, I don't make enough time to do it. Um, and I'm trying to work a balance in my life again to where I have that.

Kathleen 26:55

I don't know if our listeners know that not only are all four of your children in the military, but two of your in-laws are also. And so I want to again always thank you and your family for keeping me up at night and worrying.

Angie Rodesky 27:15

I'm glad I can help in that in that.

Kathleen 27:20

But I really do want to thank our family for their service. Thank you.

Angie Rodesky 27:24

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, thank you. Angie, do you have anything else to add for our listeners? I would say to the listeners who have who have access to diaries, whether it's travel journals or trip diaries or um, you know, agendas, ledgers from a store, when you start piecing it all together, it may build a bigger picture. Don't dismiss any small piece of information. It's important when you're reading it to take note of it, whether you do it on your computer, your tablet, that trigger this thought in your head of, I wonder if, make note of it. You know, they had a life. They're not that different from you and I. They're people. Diaries are important.

John 28:06

Angie Redesky. It's always a pleasure. It really is. I I have enjoyed having you be my wife's friend for a very long time.

Final Advice And How To Reach Us

Angie Rodesky 28:17

Thanks, Angie. Thank you. I enjoyed it.

John 28:19

Well, congratulations, you made it to the end of another episode. Thanks so much for staying. Thanks to Angie Rodesky for sharing her obsession. Thanks to Chewie Chewbacca Brandt for his unwavering lack of interest in anything we're doing. The theme song for Hittin' the Bricks was written and performed by Tony Fistknuckle and the Emeralds. Watch for the next appearance at a metamorphosed black shale near you. Do you have a genealogical question for Kathleen? Drop us a line at hitting the bricks at gmail.com and let us know.