Comments on: Library Places Missionary Diary Collection Online

By: Marianne Holtsclaw

Marianne Holtsclaw — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:51:33 +0000

I am searching for George Gibbs in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales. He is said to have been baptized in the 1850′s there. Are there any missionary journals which give information about people in that locality. I have searched at the historian’s office for Abergavenny records. There was a group there but it did not last.

By: Lisa Rickords

Lisa Rickords — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:25:08 +0000

We recently found my great grandfather’s missionoary journal (Peter James Sanders to Indiana about 1898. My parents scanned the original and I transcribed it and have shared it among relatives. It gives a basic biography and has the first 4 months of his mission, including dates, places, companions, contacts, experiences, etc. His lectures and faith are phenomenal.

Are you interested in seeing this? Or do you have enough already? (This same great grandfather debated the RLDS church’s representative about 1908 in Murray, Utah. I have some notes on this and of course there is his book on the Succession of the Presidency that has been published.)

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:30:06 +0000

To view the page and the typed text simply select the “view” pull down menu and select the format you prefer. The default is the scanned page but you can see page and text side by side or just the typed text. The text was typed to wrap at the same point as the written manuscripts.

As for finding cool stories one way is to search by keywords for subjects that interest you. We hope you enjoy your search.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:07:32 +0000

As an average member of the Church, not looking for any specific diarist in particular, aside from Hyrum Smith, which diarists do you have that would have general appeal/interest ie (James Talmage) and rather than read Hyrum Smith’s whole journal, is there anywhere in specific that has some cool stories that you would start with?

Thanks a lot!!

Also….I noticed that when I first browsed it, I was turned off because the handwriting was pretty tough to intrepret…how hard would it be to have the typed version of it, right along side it??

thanks

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:18:54 +0000

Thanks G.L.F.,
The Missionary Diaries project has highlighted the public interest in online access to library materials. While the library has the printed editions of Wilford Woodruff’s journals, the missionary diaries project featured scans of original manuscript diaries of missionaries, not published books.

The library has placed many early church publications online at http://relarchive.byu.edu/MPNC/

I’ve made a note of the interest in the Woodruff journals and I’ll pass it along.

By: G.L.F.

G.L.F. — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:06:44 +0000

BYU has 2 published copies of Wilford Woodruff’s nine volume set of journals, in a printed edition edited by Scott G. Kenney. The title is: Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 1833-1898 Typescript (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1983-1984). One copy is in the main stacks on the library’s 2nd floor and the second copy is here in Special Collections in the Americana collection. Both copies have the call number BX 8670.1 .W868jo 1983 vol.1-9 (and index). Volume 1 covers the years 1833 to 1840. Excerpts from his many journals were printed in the 1880s with the title, Leaves From My Journal. It’s been reprinted a few times, and recently made into a CD-ROM audio recording, with a copy in our LRC at CDMM 69 pts.1-3. There are not digital transcriptions of these journals at BYU that I am aware of.

By: Editor

Editor — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:53:04 +0000

A quick check in the library catalog shows that we don’t have the Wilford Woodruff diaries. You might check the church archive in Salt Lake City http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:32:16 +0000

Will you offer the diaries of Wilford Woodruff while serving in Great Britain? He baptized my great grandmother in Apperly, England, on 30 Aug 1840, and I am interested in obtaining information concerning her.

By: news

news — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:24:13 +0000

Good question. As it happens the diaries and the transcripts are complete and there was no editing of the content.

What you see online is what you would see if you visited the L. Tom Perry Special Collections reading room and requested the actual diary for research. In fact, even though the diaries are usually black ink on white paper they were scanned in color so that viewers could see everything about the books right down to the color of the paper.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:25:18 +0000

They were also instructed to respect the diarists’ sacred and private writings.

Does this mean that sections of the diaries that contain “sacred and private writings” were not included in the transcription (or in the images available on the site)? Thanks.