Fortunately one of Ed's half first cousins would like to have all of the research material and keepsakes from the Link side of the family. Since they are half cousins they only share that one Link line but it is still quite a bit of material and items. We have a wash bowl and jug that belonged to their mutual great grandmother Mercy Ann (Rathbun) Link. There are some other dishes but I do not know the exact person and some of them are from the Allen family (Ed's maternal grandmother). There is quite a collection of old photographs from the early 1900s in the west where his grandfather Link homesteaded and Ed's mother was born. We have everything scanned so it is possible to hand on the originals as people are more likely to travel to where his cousin is to see the items then come all the way to Eastern Ontario.
That is our next sorting day to get all that material together to give to his cousin's son who lives here. Thank goodness; that was very lucky.
The extraction of the research blogs is preceding rapidly. I am into 2015 now and Ed was moving in a different direction from 2016 on. He became more involved than ever with the Ottawa Branch and we were joint treasurers for the 2017 Conference. We did a lot of local and southwestern ontario traveling as well in those years plus a trip to the east coast. I felt like I was always going somewhere and taking notes as cousins chatted about their memories and I recorded them for him to put into his notes here at home. We attended a few Conferences/Reunions in Canada and in the United States as well and Ed was busy putting together all of his United Empire Loyalist material to pass on since we no longer did those trips and he wanted them to be archived for the future. He completed that in 2019 and passed it all on during COVID at some point. I remember helping to transfer boxes into the person's car.
I still have his older blog to extract although it is smaller and it ran from 2008 to 2011. We both started blogs after our Research Trip to Salt Lake City.
I am hoping that all of these books we packed up will be picked up mid month. Ed would want his books to be used by other researchers and all of that takes time to set up in the library which is still closed. Then we can pass on the bookcases as well. They are simply huge and heavy and I have whittled the books down to just a couple of bookcases. Hard to believe really but I tend to buy more textbook style books and a lot of the material that I do have I have had scanned for me in repositories in England. Sometimes I do print them out but mostly they remain online as that was how I wanted to have all of my research so it can be archived and passed on eventually.
Just taking a break from cleaning. I do seem to spend a lot of time cleaning and I am hoping that fewer books and bookcases will help me with that. I am getting too old to be cleaning so much. I really need to get to my newsletters.
Deciding to keep Edward here for the undetermined future has given me a new lease on life. He loved his home and here is where he would rather be until my turn comes and then we can be together even if our children move hither and yon. Although I will let them decide where to bury us. As always only God knows the time and the place. One of my favourite moments in life is remembering that God is always with us and He will decide when it is time for us to lay down the heavy cloak of life and move on into the spirit world.
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