The Story of the Journal and Journal Blog

The pages linked above with their year of composition include entries from Rosette's actual journal, with background information to help us understand her world 150 years ago. Use the year links above to see the entries in the months and years she wrote them. Or go to the sitemap to browse the entries by title.

 

If you are a professional or amateur genealogist or historian interested in the content of the journal, please email to connect with me, or comment on an individual entry. I hope to publish the transcription of the journal in mid-2021, and I hope you find Rosette as fascinating as I do!


Photo of a page of the original journal
A page from the journal of Rosette Cordelia Ramsdell, from her wedding day, significant in the opening chapter of the novel.

In about 2003, my mother, Barbara Carter Day (deceased 2013), gave me this antique journal she had found in an antiques or junk store in Florida. She said I should "write the book." I dipped into the journal and was captured by the drama of the everyday, especially a few mysterious details . . .

 

Over the years I transcribed the journal and, after Rosette's life sank into my soul and urged me to research what happened before and after these eighteen brief months, I began to dream of writing a novel to give her a voice. The novel was published in early 2016, and I want to share some of her original words here.

 

Join the Readers List to learn of new entries for the journal and bonus content and special offers for publications related to Rosette: A Novel of Pioneer Michigan and the companion novel Solomon Ramsdell: A Novel of the Civil War Era .