I'm just about to move house (if the contracts ever get signed) and this means I have to finally sort out all my books.
They have been stored for some years in floor to ceiling bookcases covering two complete walls in a room which has been used by my stepson as his art studio. This means that he more or less completely blocked access to them by stacking canvases many layers deep against them, erecting easels, setting up a trestle table covered with art equipment etc etc etc.
I could see the top couple of shelves but couldn't get to them.....
Anyhow, his
detritus, sorry, equipment has now been taken into storage and I have now been given access to the books I've not seen since c 2013 (when the ceiling fell down in the room and I had to carry them somewhere else for the duration, though that's another story. Nobody injured I should add, perhaps).
And how many books and other memorabilia have I found!
Lots of history books, unread for years, OH's chess books, sheet music of every genre, postcards, photographs, concert programmes, a certificate recording my climb of the Great Wall of China and - just now - the book I knew existed which records my Gx3 Grandfather's death at sea off Brightlingsea in 1823 when he was on his way home from a rescue.
This has of course taken me back to my tree, and thence to all the information I'd attached to him, and thence to my email files where I discover all the remote relatives on this line I have been in touch with over - now - 20 years
.
And links to old RC queries where helpful people, many of whom are still here, researching and posting, whose answers I'm amazed to read - because I can't even remember posting the queries.
Somewhat of a long story to share that, in this particular 'hobby', years fly by and you can't believe it's been 8 years/10 years and more since you were last in touch with cousins who you feel a vague affinity/fondness for, even though you've not thought about them or written for aeons.
And some of them don't reply to your mails and you fear that sadly they may now be no longer with us, and you can't share that exciting discovery you've just made on a line you had loads of mails about way back when. Which you KNOW they'll be interested in.
It never ends, does it?
Thanks to all of you who've helped over the years. I've not finished yet, either
PS added: and I was able to find, and share with my son, more details about my Gx3 Grandfather's experience as a Private in the Royal Marines on HMS Belleisle at the Battle of Trafalgar, and wonder yet again at the miracle of the resilience and chance of survival in desperate circumstances of our ancestor which enabled me and him to actually even be here.