In my search for my missing Purdy roots I decided that I needed to use Facebook more. this social media site has become so widely used that I knew my chances of finding Purdy's were pretty good. So, I sat at my computer and did some searching for Richard Purdy of Philadelphia. I came across a few Richard Purdy's but none of them believed they were tied to the Richard Joseph Purdy that I was searching for information on. After exhausting all my Richard Purdy Facebook search results I decided that I needed to look for any Purdy in the Philadelphia area. so I widened my search to include anyone with the last name Purdy and after one day of reaching out I came across a Veronica Purdy who said that the story of an orphan in Philadelphia named Richard Purdy sounded like it could be her uncle Richard. she went on to tell me that her Father had a brother named Richard and that both of them spent time in the care of the state while they were young. She said that they also had an older brother named William. This was new information which made me wonder if I had the right Richard. Every thing we knew about Richard said that there wasn't any family and that he was just an orphan. Veronica shared with me a picture of her Father Ed and right away I saw traits that reminded me of my Father but I wasn't sure if that was just wishful thinking and hoping or if I was actually seeing genetic similarities. ancestry.com had the Y test that male's could take to determine if they have the same father or not. but the Y test only works with boys and as of right now my father was the only boy and there was nobody from Veronica's family that could take the test to confirm if we were on the right track or not. We were able to get our hands on a death certificate for a Richard Joseph Purdy that listed cause of death to be complications of alcoholism. on that certificate it listed a Richard Purdy Jr. as the next of kin. This certificate was confirmed to have been for Veronica's Uncle since the time of death and cause of death matched things she knew about Richard. My communication with Veronica was exciting but we both felt that we needed a little more proof before we were willing to call each other cousins.
I decided that I would make an album available to the public on Facebook. If anyone searched Richard, Ed, William, Keith, or Purdy it was going to bring up this album in the search
results. I decided this would increase my chances of finding people. finding Veronica and her Sister's was exciting and was full of possibilities but it wasn't quite enough yet to say my search was done. All the new information I received was verifiable through ancestry.com there indeed was two boys who didn't live at home named Ed and William. there was a Richard at the same time who was living as a boarder during the same time when just an infant. Could this Richard be the Richard I was connected to?
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