Saturday, June 5, 2021

The books are all getting packed

Today is another book packing day and we think there are two days left and we will have completed the task of recording the books that are going to OGS and packing them (this includes UEL books), packing books for the Friends of the Ottawa Archives of the City of Ottawa to sell as well but not recording them. Edward loved to read novels and there are many of them only read once. I occasionally would start one but I could never get into fiction; perhaps real life is already so exciting that reading exciting fiction doesn't appeal to me. I have just never read fiction to any great extent. It needs to be real for me to read it.

We are excited to get all these books packed up for OGS as Edward wanted to share his books with other interested genealogists he told me those last few weeks. He did give instructions on passing the UEL to that association but I have no idea how to do that so we have simply separated them from the OGS donation into their own boxes. OGS could also have them in their collection or they could pass them to the UEL library which is housed in the same building. I will leave that with them. 

There are also runs of some genealogical journals (American genealogical societies) which we will also give to them. It is nice to have the hard copy to look at although most of these societies are now online and perhaps all I do not generally look at American research other than the Blake and Pincombe families for my one name studies although I tend to leave it to those researchers who then share their research on these two families with me. 

I am looking forward to passing on this book collection and it will let me look at the house and determine where I am headed. I can not imagine living here without Edward. He was the heart of our household with everything centered around him. My doing anything outside of the house other than working is totally at his request and so he should really get any credit that one might give to me. He did get me involved with the OGS in the early 2000s helping him with his projects. I admit that I did it solely to help him and to be part of that part of his life since he desired it. I am still deciding what to do about all of his memberships. He belonged to a lot of organizations and likely they will all end this year. He also donated to the hospitals here in Ottawa and would likely have wanted that to continue and I am working my way through that. 

Other than that we continue remembering Edward every day chatting about the things that he did that were solely with us and there were lots of things. He was pretty much the center; having good ideas and thoughts and so many interests. 

I have about 20 boxes of his research that I will keep and sort through and publish on his "My American and Canadian Ancestors" Blog. There are another set of boxes that will go to one of his Link cousins along with dishes and other personal family items which he would like to have. That will be the next big project. Sorting out all the Link material and giving it to his cousins. 

The donation of medical supplies will happen when the lockdown ends and that will also be nice to see that equipment being used. They could not take the Chair Lift yet but one of the societies is looking at that so will wait and see if someone has need of it. 

The books for Maniwaki and the bookcases will go also when the lockdown ends. There are just eight boxes of books as most of his National Geographic Collection was already given away about ten years ago or more now. I was still working so perhaps a little longer than that. Fourty two bookcases is a lot of bookcases and I will keep about ten I think or fewer and some of them are actually china cabinets that my mother gave to Edward after my father died. I will likely use them for their intended purpose although my father also had books in them!

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