I bought this book at a local charity shop this afternoon. I have registered other copies of this in the past.

This book is kind of special for me because it's the story of my family coming to Canada. The characters in this book are my relatives, Christian Eby being my 5th great grandfather, Benj and Mary being my 4th great grandparents. I even share my birthday with Benj (only I'm 201 years younger)! These are stories I've known all my life, passed down from generation to generation, and while there are some liberties taken in the book version from what I understand-- particularly with the character of Nancy, my 5th great grandmother whose actual name was Catherine-- it's basically true. It pretty much corresponds with all the old family stories and anything documented that we have. This particular edition of the book is special for me too, as it was published by my grandfather (or Grossdoddy as we Pennsylvania Dutch say) when I was a little girl.

On July 1st, I plan to do my first mass release (albeit a small one). I plan to leave some immigration stories in Kitchener's Victoria Park, in the area around the bell tower with all the quotes and luggage sculptures, and I am including this book! Where possible, I will leave the books near quotes that relate to the stories.

Since before Canada was Canada, people have been coming here from lots of different places, in lots of different ways, and for lots of different reasons. Our history is not without mistakes or injustices, but I feel there is a lot that's worthy of celebration and pride as well. I have done my best, in these restricted times, to diversify the books I've chosen in terms of style and reading level, as well as in terms of times and cultures represented. Some are geared to kids, some to adults; some are fiction, some are non-fiction; some focus more on what happened in a person/character's life that led to them coming to Canada, some focus on building a life here, and some focus more on the journey itself; many have been written by immigrant authors. Some of these books were written a long time ago and may contain dated language/attitudes, but history was what it was so I've chosen not to automatically rule out books based on those factors. If you've found one of these books, I hope that you will enjoy it!

I left this book on the McBrine Baggage suitcase-- the one with the tag that reads "Family ties, fertile land and future promise were reasons to immigrate and move here."

If you've found this book, thanks for picking it up and checking out its journal! If you're new to bookcrossing, welcome. We'd love it if you'd stick around with us a while. I really hope that you enjoy both this book and the whole bookcrossing experience! Happy Canada Day!

This book was released as part of a couple of different release challenges here on bookcrossing-- the "Canada Days" Release Challenge and the "There's No Place Like Home" Release Challenge.