The Addoms Family Papers encompass the years 1763 through 1872. During this time period, three generations of the family conducted business, wrote to one another and about each other in letters and diaries, and also recorded their observations and feelings in journals and in school compositions. The majority of the documents (correspondences, diaries, journals, school compositions, etc.) in the Addoms’ Family Papers are those of Reverend J. T. Addoms and his family. These records span the time period 1820-1872 and provide unique insight into the Addoms’ family life. Many of the documents detail the development of the Addoms children, their schooling, and their interactions with one another and friends. Other documents dated from this time period concern the tragic events occurring between February 25, 1839 and May 20, 1844 in which five of the Addoms’ children passed away. Poignant diary passages recount the heartbreak one Addoms’ daughter endured as she watched two of her siblings pass away within three months of each other. Also within the pages of her diary are elegies composed for her lost siblings. These documents not only illustrate a dark and trying period in the Addoms’ family life, they also demonstrate the harsh realities of life in the nineteenth century. Also included in the collection are documents involving deaths among Reverend Addoms’ congregation. Many of the miscellaneous materials in the collection concern death and dying in the form of poems, obituary scrapbooks, various memorials, and religious literature. The collection contains two letters from the War of 1812 and eight letters from the Civil War era. The collection is housed in two document boxes and further subdivided by consecutively numbered folders.