to try and find this person

[bettybattenburg]

I'm always wary of posts looking for a person, however I picked up a book in a local book exchange place the other day which is quite old and has a dedication 'in memory of John Smith' (obviously not the real name) and was donated to an organisation in memory of them.

WIBU to post details on social media to try and find the family of this obviously deceased person in case they'd like to have the book? It ended up a long way from where it originated as it has the area that the person was from and we're nowhere near there.

That seems a nice thing to do

Yes that would be nice, OP

I'll take a photo of the coverplate and dedication, WIBU to post it on here in the MN Local?

Is it not more likely they have donated it in the first place

I would say it's very likely they deliberately donated it. When a relative died he had loads of lovely books with personalised messages in most of them (family tradition) but we couldn't keep them all. Everyone picked a few special ones and we donated the rest.

Somebody probably did, yes. I suppose I was thinking that somebody else in the family might be unaware given that it's some 300 miles from where it's from originally. Hmm, not sure what to do.

Surely it’s the family that have donated it. Read it, enjoy it, and pass it on in his memory.

What if it wasn't his family that donated it though? What if they don't know about it?

If it was donated to an organisation in his memory then the family may not have a copy of it. Our local church has a small lending library and all of the books there have been donated in memory of people, they've all got nameplate inside the front cover and it's a bit of a thing for family members to donate a copy of their loved one's favourite book to the church library.

I'd try and find them, OP. Worst that happens is that they say they don't want it. Which area of the country did it originate in?