"That's my honey!" she said with a gleam in her eye, holding up her husband's picture.
I met widow Jessie McMurtrie at her home in Charleston, WV on the 3rd of July, 1982. She was 80 years old. I'd been given her address by her nephew John Herbert Ardies in Quebec a few days before. He said his aunt had a lot of information on the family, and I'd hoped she might know the link between their Ardies family and my own.
Her house was all torn up, as she was remodeling it - by herself!
She offered me a beer as we stepped over and around piles of lumber, drywall, and paneling, to get to one room that wasn't yet torn up. She told me she had the names of everyone in her family, but it wasn't organized. She said it was just on little pieces of paper.
It was hot in the house, as parts of it were open to the elements, and there was no a/c. She had a huge fan, but that's the last thing you want blowing when you're looking at "little pieces of paper", which turned out to be an exact description of how she kept her family information! She had many envelopes and small boxes of bits of paper, covered with scrawled names.
We sat in her cozy little den drinking beer for several hours, as she handed me pieces of letters, envelopes, and other scraps of paper. She knew the story behind each one, and knew their connection to the family, even if she didn't know too many birthdates. I managed to get it all down on bigger pieces of paper so that I could organize all the families later.
What a charming and fascinating little gal she was! I enjoyed my visit with her immensely.
I met widow Jessie McMurtrie at her home in Charleston, WV on the 3rd of July, 1982. She was 80 years old. I'd been given her address by her nephew John Herbert Ardies in Quebec a few days before. He said his aunt had a lot of information on the family, and I'd hoped she might know the link between their Ardies family and my own.
Her house was all torn up, as she was remodeling it - by herself!
She offered me a beer as we stepped over and around piles of lumber, drywall, and paneling, to get to one room that wasn't yet torn up. She told me she had the names of everyone in her family, but it wasn't organized. She said it was just on little pieces of paper.
It was hot in the house, as parts of it were open to the elements, and there was no a/c. She had a huge fan, but that's the last thing you want blowing when you're looking at "little pieces of paper", which turned out to be an exact description of how she kept her family information! She had many envelopes and small boxes of bits of paper, covered with scrawled names.
We sat in her cozy little den drinking beer for several hours, as she handed me pieces of letters, envelopes, and other scraps of paper. She knew the story behind each one, and knew their connection to the family, even if she didn't know too many birthdates. I managed to get it all down on bigger pieces of paper so that I could organize all the families later.
What a charming and fascinating little gal she was! I enjoyed my visit with her immensely.
"That's my honey!" she said with a gleam in her eye, holding up her husband's picture.
I met widow Jessie McMurtrie at her home in Charleston, WV on the 3rd of July, 1982. She was 80 years old. I'd been given her address by her nephew John Herbert Ardies in Quebec a few days before. He said his aunt had a lot of information on the family, and I'd hoped she might know the link between their Ardies family and my own.
Her house was all torn up, as she was remodeling it - by herself!
She offered me a beer as we stepped over and around piles of lumber, drywall, and paneling, to get to one room that wasn't yet torn up. She told me she had the names of everyone in her family, but it wasn't organized. She said it was just on little pieces of paper.
It was hot in the house, as parts of it were open to the elements, and there was no a/c. She had a huge fan, but that's the last thing you want blowing when you're looking at "little pieces of paper", which turned out to be an exact description of how she kept her family information! She had many envelopes and small boxes of bits of paper, covered with scrawled names.
We sat in her cozy little den drinking beer for several hours, as she handed me pieces of letters, envelopes, and other scraps of paper. She knew the story behind each one, and knew their connection to the family, even if she didn't know too many birthdates. I managed to get it all down on bigger pieces of paper so that I could organize all the families later.
What a charming and fascinating little gal she was! I enjoyed my visit with her immensely.
I met widow Jessie McMurtrie at her home in Charleston, WV on the 3rd of July, 1982. She was 80 years old. I'd been given her address by her nephew John Herbert Ardies in Quebec a few days before. He said his aunt had a lot of information on the family, and I'd hoped she might know the link between their Ardies family and my own.
Her house was all torn up, as she was remodeling it - by herself!
She offered me a beer as we stepped over and around piles of lumber, drywall, and paneling, to get to one room that wasn't yet torn up. She told me she had the names of everyone in her family, but it wasn't organized. She said it was just on little pieces of paper.
It was hot in the house, as parts of it were open to the elements, and there was no a/c. She had a huge fan, but that's the last thing you want blowing when you're looking at "little pieces of paper", which turned out to be an exact description of how she kept her family information! She had many envelopes and small boxes of bits of paper, covered with scrawled names.
We sat in her cozy little den drinking beer for several hours, as she handed me pieces of letters, envelopes, and other scraps of paper. She knew the story behind each one, and knew their connection to the family, even if she didn't know too many birthdates. I managed to get it all down on bigger pieces of paper so that I could organize all the families later.
What a charming and fascinating little gal she was! I enjoyed my visit with her immensely.
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