Day Two

First of all, a thank you to Barbara for her inquiry about her father Samuel Travis Russell. As far as I can tell he (and you) are not related to us. My database is not complete; I know there are a lot of distant relatives I don't even know about, but our Russells didn't come from Alabama and I just don't think we are related.

I received in the mail from my sister-in-law Mary her transcribed pages from Doyle Russell's diary of 1965. Doyle kept a daily diary for most of his life and we have saved some of them. Unfortunately, many were lost. This one for 1965 is almost complete and quite readable so Mary's transcription is valuable to those of us who love family history. I plan to find some family photos taken in 1965, insert scans of them into the text, and print the pages off for interested family members. I've done that already with some of Doyle and Frances's diaries from the '40s. I wonder what Doyle would think if he knew his diaries were being illustrated and printed for others to see. The diary entries are mostly about what he did, who he saw, and what he bought. They aren't the really personal sort of entries that could prove embarrassing. In fact, Doyle rarely tells about how he feels about something. Mostly, these are hard facts without editorializing.