Genealogy Story – Eva’s Journals

When I recently visited my cousin (2^nd cousin, once removed), Lauren, in Massachusetts, she loaned me the journals of Eva [Pulver] Peet, her great-grandmother. These journals are an incomplete set. There is one that covers the years 1943 and 1944, and others covering the period 1963-1968 and 1970. The one for 1943-1944 is quite detailed, with entries on nearly every day. In some of the later years they get more and more sparse, with the one for 1970 ending in late January.

Many of the entries list the weather for that date. There are a lot of entries which were evidently taken from the local newspaper – particularly items having to do with births, marriages, and deaths. While most of these entries are about local people in New Milford where Eva lived, there are also a number of celebrity entries – such as the deaths of TV/Movie stars like Bea Bernadette, Elvis Presley, etc.

For most of the folks that Eva knew personally, she only listed first names. So I had to familiarize myself with all her relatives so I would know who she was referring to. But besides relatives, she also listed neighbors and others in the small town of New Milford. Since I didn’t recognize those names, I just have to presume that they were close friends, neighbors, etc.

Particularly in the 1943-1944 diary, I found that Eva listed some family members by nicknames, or at least the names that she called them. Every entry for her son Eldridge was listed as “Buddie”. I was also somewhat confused at first by her references to “Louie”, since that was how my father called his grandfather (and Eva’s step-father), Louis. But after going through a few months of entries, I determined that “Louie” was how she referred to her husband, Luther, and her step-father she referred to as “Dad”. What made it especially difficult to figure out was that Eva’s mother and step-father lived in Waterbury, but her husband Luther had a job in Waterbury as well and he tended to stay there during the week (I found an entry in a 1950 city directory of New Milford that listed Luther as a Foreman in a Waterbury company). So when she said “Louie went back to Waterbury”, that meant that her husband was going to work, but when she said “Dad went back to Waterbury”, that meant that her step-father was going back home. Since her step-father seemed to make a practice of going to New Milford on many weekends, it was quite interesting to get each entry straight.

Buddie had been drafted in 1942, so the 1943-1944 journal listed all the letters she received from him (and when letters were not being received for a while how much she worried). In the later journals he was then living with his mother and so the entries recorded when he was working and when he was home.

Eva lived in close proximity to her half-sister, Marguerite, and they often visited back and forth or took drives together. However, she had little interaction with her older sister, Lola. In fact, there are no references to Lola in any of these journals. In 1944 there was one call made to Lola’s daughter, also named Lola. But there were a few references to Lola’s youngest daughter, Juanita – a visit in 1943, others in 1963 and 1964, her new address in 1965, and a final visit in 1968.

I particularly wanted to record all the interactions that Eva had with other family members – especially her step-siblings. The only reference to my grandfather, Erskine, was in January 1970 when he had his leg amputated and then died a few days later – but this appears to have been based on a phone call from Loretta the following day. The only references to Bill Russell were a visit to his apple orchard in 1965 (although there are other references to getting apples that may have left his name out), and a note about Bill’s wife Mildred being in the hospital in 1967.

But of her step-sisters there are a great number of references. Nearly every year records one or more visits by Loretta and Pauline (often traveling together). On a few occasions they come separately with their husbands (George and Harold respectively). Pauline’s daughter Gertrude came with her on two occasions (1965 and 1968).

In the early years, my grandmother Vera (who was by then long divorced from my grandfather and remarried) also visited/called quite frequently – which made sense since she also lived in New Milford. Once in 1943 she visited with her daughter (my Aunt Dot) and new grandchild (my cousin Carolyn) who was about six months old. But in 1963 my grandmother’s passing is recorded so there are no more references to her.

The other things that I found interesting were some of the daily “trivia” that Eva felt led to record. On a few occasions she noted that she bought a new girdle. Why, of all purchases, this was significant enough to record is an interesting speculation. And in the 1943-1944 journal there are numerous references to the impact of WWII. Besides her son Buddie being deployed, she recorded the process relating to Marguerite’s son Gordon (got his letter on 2/16, took a physical on 2/22, tested and accepted on 2/27, left home on 3/8, shipped out on 3/10, in Camp Shelby (MS) on 3/18, home on furlough 7/29-8/9, deployed on 9/25). Besides recording all the letters she got from Buddie, she also recorded other people getting letters from loved ones – including when the letter was written and when it was finally received (often 2-3 weeks or longer).

Even though there is not written more than a few sentences each day, and many days are blank, it’s been interesting to see the world through someone else’s eyes and imagine what it must have been like for Eva. I’m grateful, not only that she recorded this information for others to see in the future, but for my cousin Lauren for loaning them to me.