Some of you didn’t get last week’s message about new things on the GenWeb. That’s because some spammer was using a RocHistory.com mail address as a return address. So some websites blocked all emails coming from RocHistory.com including a real messages from me.

Last week I posted three smaller diaries/journals of Hamlet Scrantom, an early resident of Rochester. He was the first person in 1812 to live on the 100 Acre Tract that is now downtown Rochester. Those from last week were:

Hamlet Scrantom’s Day Book, 1807 – 1822

Hamlet Scrantom’s Journal, 1840 – 1842

Hamlet Sceantom’s Diary, 1843 – 1844

Now there is a much larger journal kept by Hamlet:

Hamlet Scrantom’s Journal, 1824 – 1850

This one is over 160 typed pages. Actually there is a gap. In 1838 he moved to Buffalo and lived with one of his sons. He didn’t record anything for those years or maybe it wasn’t transcribed as it didn’t pertain to Rochester. He did move back Rochester in 1838. Then we have the two books from last week that cover from 1840 to 1844. Then this journal starts again in 1845. On page 150 there is a mention of Hamlet’s death on April 10, 1850 at aged 77.

Hamlet records a lot of deaths in Rochester. Most of those can also be found in old newspapers but I’ll bet you he recorded a few that didn’t get mentioned in the Rochester papers. He also records births of his grandchildren.

Hamlet got a thermometer in July 1825. At first he records temperatures 5 times a day and later just 3 times a day. His thermometer broke in April 1828 but someone gave him another one in Nov. 1828. Lots of other weather related notes.

He mentioned that on Oct. 26, 1825 there was cannon fire along the Erie Canal. That was the day that the Canal officially opened. He also writes that the next day the Village of Rochesterville was illuminated in the evening to celebrate the opening of the Canal.

Hamlet writes notes about family and other coming and going. Some are a Wadsworth family members. At first I thought they were the Wadsworth family from  Geneseo but reading more of those notes I figured out they were a Wadsworth family from Connecticut that was somehow related to Hamlet.

All these were transcribed as a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression.