As I work my way through the twenty or so boxes of papers from Mona I have begun to make notes on her family history. Birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, and some other papers give quite a bit of information. Mona was an only child; her mother was one of two children, her father one of four (as I recall.)

Somewhere along the line there was a relative whose estate included Mona--but she relinquished all claim to her share. I have finally discovered that the last name of the relative is the same as the maiden name of Mona's grandfather's wife. It will be interesting to see how much more I can find out.

I've also learned that there is something called a charitable annuity, where you donate an amount to a charitable concern (in Mona's case, to a college to fund a scholarship in her mother's name) and get an annual return on the money you donated. When you die, the money is out of your estate (for tax purposes) and you get a tax deduction the year you turn over the money and start the annuity. Your annuity income is taxed as regular income in the year you receive it.

The next day I go in to work I'll FINALLY be doing the final processing of this particular box of what I refer to as "legal stuff." Once all the records are held together with plastic paper clips and are in acid-free folders, that box will be essentially done. I'm not sure if I'm using acid-free boxes, or if there are any around, but if we're currently out of them it will be very little work to transfer the folders.

Last week the library got some lovely new furniture and now the desk area looks like a library. Before the new things came there was just a regular desk by the door. Now it has the raised counter and all sorts of other neat stuff.

And the computer I use downstairs has a regular keyboard again!!! Before that it had an Asian keyboard, and the symbols were not on the keys in English characters. The letters were, but not the symbols. How many people remember what number has the pound sign, unless it's something you use all the time, or are a fantastic touch typist? And many of the symbols weren't on the same keys as a regular keyboard. It was very interesting using that keyboard.