Unlike government and judicial records which were created by a central organization for specific purposes, and unlike newspapers which were created as public and commercial enterprises, personal (i.e., non-administrative) diaries and letters are private documents created by a great many people over time for a wide variety of purposes. While it is highly probable that more diaries and letters than government documents were created in the nineteenth century, many fewer of them have survived. For unlike government and judicial records, diaries and personal letters were not carefully organized and preserved in public archives created for that purpose. Instead, these documents tend to end up in public archives like the British Columbia Archives in a haphazard and piecemeal way. Diaries and letters of the wealthy and privileged are over-represented. Many of the "common people" would not consider their personal lives to be of interest to the public, while others would not consider donating such personal writings for public scrutiny.
Sources like diaries and letters provide a mass of information and reflection about life in earlier times. They allow us to see beyond the government's purview, beyond generalized opinions and typical experiences into the unique lives of individuals. The varied, personal, and unsystematic nature of the documentation they provide, however, constitutes their weakness as well as their strength as historical "evidence". Often the writer will try to make him or herself appear in a better light than a neutral observer in a situation, or they will exaggerate to add interest to their letters or diaries -- if they expect others to read them. Their unique content reminds the historian of the variability of human experience, but it also inhibits our ability to make comparisons or to draw conclusions relevant to the wider society.
Personal diaries and letters exist in a wide variety of archives throughout Canada. In recent years, the volume of government documents and the work involved in managing them has increased the burden on the resources of the British Columbia Archives. As a result, the BCA, in co-operation with the provincial government, has encouraged local and community archives to manage non-government materials generated in their communities. In British Columbia, the online British Columbia Archives Union List provides access to all of the archives in the province, allowing researchers to search letters, diaries, and memoirs about a particular person, place, event, or topic.
If you would like to leave this website and explore this source in more detail, you can search for personal diaries and letters in British Columbia through the British Columbia Archival Union List (BCAUL):
http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/bcaul.html