Journals
Journals are not just the written thoughts of an individual as you would think a diary is for sure. There have been many professional journals on all types of topics and time frames.
Found on the online Internet Archives site, you have access to thousands of such journals, over 1.7 million. When researching your family, select topics such as their hometown, home county or home state or states. Research also using their surname or their occupation (such as dentist or doctor). Search for school names, building names and historic events – any which may have played a part in your ancestors’ lives.
Putting in ‘Florida’ produced 872 journals. The University of Maryland had 30 listings, for Michigan, there were over 7,000 entries with sub-topics of trees, Wayne County, Settlement of Michigan Territory, SE Michigan Records, agriculture in Michigan, or French Colony of Michigan. Dates of these journals go back to late 1700s to the present day.
Placing a surname would product many authors with that name who wrote the journals. An occupation such as ‘teachers’ produced 896 items. One of the items was about the pay of teachers in 1920.
True, many of these journals are scientific in nature and could be hard to read but you never know when a ‘gem’ might be located. 
Photos: Page of French Colony of Michigan; Journal of Mycology 1885 by Benjamin Everhart; teacher pay in 1920.
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