Massachusetts woman researches Fairfax man’s diary, looks for his descendants

Long-lost diaries of a man who lived in Fairfax in the 1940s eventually will be returned to his great-grandson by a Massachusetts woman who acquired them for research from the online marketplace eBay.

The diaries were purchased a few years ago by Addi Catarina, 26, an elementary art teacher in Massachusetts, who researches historic diaries and artifacts with the goal of returning them to their descendants.

Catarina reads and transcribes the diaries live on TikTok, the social-media video platform, and has amassed a following of people she calls the “diary detectives.” Together, the group is researching DeLany, his family and his life in Fairfax to learn about the time period and, hopefully, return the diaries to his descendants, Catarina said.

Catarina reached out to The Gazette last month asking for help locating the descendants of the diarist, Thomas “Todd” DeLany. The Gazette was able to locate Jim DeLany, 65, of Cedar Rapids, the great-grandson of Todd DeLany.

“The ultimate goal is to return these diaries to someone who would appreciate them,” Catarina said.

Jim, who reached his own “dead end” in researching his family’s history, hopes the diaries will give him clues about his ancestry. Having the diaries for himself would “mean a great deal,” he said.

Catarina has three of at least 10 diaries Todd DeLany kept during his lifetime. The diaries she has are from the years 1943, 1944 and 1947. The eBay seller Catarina purchased the diaries from was selling between 10 and 15 diaries at the time, she said.

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“There are probably eight other diaries out there in chronological order from (DeLany),” Catarina said. “I wish I had gotten more, but I didn’t know at the time how special the story was.”

Catarina calls DeLany’s diaries the “Weatherman Diaries” because he began each entry with a description of the weather. It wasn’t until a few weeks into researching the diary that she learned DeLany’s name was Thomas or “Todd.”

Todd’s son, Loyd, and grandson, Roger, also were avid diarists, Jim said. Jim recalls that his father, Roger, also began each entry with a description of the weather.

Meet TikTok’s ‘diary detectives’

Emily LaFramboise, who lives in Michigan, came across Catarina’s TikTok a couple of months ago and now considers herself one of the diary detectives.

“I’ve always been drawn to old letters, postcards and diaries at antique shops and thrift stores. I didn’t know other people even had an interest until I stumbled across one of (Catarina’s) lives on TikTok,” she said.

Each of the diary detectives bring a “strength” to the group, LaFramboise said. Hers is being able to read “really difficult” handwriting, she said.

“It feels good to be able to decipher some writing with other participants cheering you on,” LaFramboise said.

LaFramboise said she and the diary detectives want “so badly” to connect with people in Fairfax who may have more information about the family. She’s even mapped the route — it’s an eight-hour drive from her home.

“We want to see a picture of Todd. We cannot find a picture of him,” she said.

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Deciphering the ‘Weatherman Diaries’

Catarina and the diary detectives still are working through reading DeLany’s diaries. They have finished 1943 and are in the middle of the 1944 diary.

In the 1943 diary, DeLany suddenly stopped writing in July. “He’s writing every day consistently and then he stops for two months,” Catarina said.

When the diary picks up again, the handwriting is “completely different” but still written from DeLany’s perspective. “For a long time, we didn’t know what this meant,” Catarina said.

Eventually, they found DeLany’s death certificate, which mentioned he suffered a stroke in July 1943. He died in 1944. Catarina, however, has a diary from 1947. “His wife must have kept writing for him, which is so sweet,” she said.

Catarina said DeLany went from being “really active,” mowing his lawn every day and taking care of the farm, to doing small tasks after his stroke. “A small walk for him every other day is a big deal,” she said.

One of Catarina’s favorite entries is when DeLany talks about walking down the street to the train tracks to wave at his son, Loyd — who worked for the Railway Mail Service — as he rode by.

“That entry is so sad and sweet. It’s almost like you get to know these people,” Catarina said.

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Piecing together a life story

The hobby of collecting and researching diaries began when Catarina purchased a diary from an estate sale about five years ago. It was the handwriting in the diary that caught her eye, along with the newspaper clippings, pictures and poems glued to the pages “like a scrapbook,” Catarina said.

“Piece by piece, the story kept coming together,” Catarina said.

Catarina soon learned the diary was written in 1917 by a Brooklyn socialite named Anglesea Hewlett. Catarina was able to get in touch with Hewlett’s granddaughter to return the diary to the family.

“It’s a year in the life of a grandmother she never knew anything about,” Catarina said.

Catarina continues to look for diaries she can research. While reading the diaries, she picks out “places, people and clues” she can further research through newspaper archives and ancestry.com, a collection of online family history records.

Still seeking DeLany’s descendants

Catarina said she reached out to people on ancestry.com and Facebook trying to get in touch with DeLany’s descendants. “I would love to talk to anyone, even if they’re not a relative,” she said.

Catarina said she has learned that DeLany’s daughter, Edna DeLany, lived in Fairfax for the rest of her life and didn’t have any children. His son, Loyd, had three sons, she said.

Catarina said she also has learned that DeLany’s wife — whose name also was Edna — had the maiden name Gibson. Edna’s parents — Amos and Emma Gibson — owned a hotel called the Star Hotel, which now is the Star Bar & Grill, 303 Church St. in Fairfax.

“Legend has it Loyd was actually born inside the Star Hotel, but we can’t verify that,” said Jim, corroborating these facts.

Did you know the weatherman?

Addi Catarina can be found on TikTok or YouTube at @thingslostandfound. Her website for the “Weatherman Diaries” is sites.google.com/view/the-weatherman-diaries.

To contact Catarina about the Todd DeLany diaries, or to share photos with her of historic Fairfax, email her at thingslostandfound1@gmail.com.

“I would love to chat with anyone that might have some history to share,” she said.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com

John McGlothlen of The Gazette contributed to this report.