16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, May 29, 1911: My mother’s wedding anniversary. 27 years ago. We are going to build a piece to the barn. Two of the carpenters came today. During a thunderstorm this afternoon, the lightning struck a large oak tree.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’ve been curious about how marriage ages have changed over the years (see March 22 entry). Grandma’s parents must have gotten married in 1884. Her mother would have been 21 or 22; her father would have been 26.
On May 10 Grandma mentioned helping pour mortar—I now wonder if it was in preparation for the construction of the piece they were going to build onto the barn.
Filed under: Genealogy
Love this entry! You get a date for your gggrandparents marriage, what was happening on the farm AND a weather report. Just wonderful.
Your comment is also wonderful. I hadn’t thought about how many layers of information there were in this diary entry until I read what you had written.
[...] helped one another a hundred years ago. I wonder how many men helped with the raising of the barn addition, and how much food Grandma helped prepare and serve. The Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma [...]
[...] mother’s 28th wedding anniversary. The previous year, Grandma had written in the diary on May 29, 1911: My mother’s wedding anniversary. 27 years ago. . [...]