The Letters of Esther Lee Richardson

Esther Lee Richardson
1896-1923

Esther Lee Richardson was my great grandmother. She lived in Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties in Virginia. Sadly I never knew her.  She died in 1923 of influenza. She was the daughter of Harriet Elliott and Daniel Richardson of Pittsylvania County, VA.  She married Boss Henry Talbott and together they had four children: Crafton, Ruth, Garnet and Alma.

I do know a lot about Esther.

 For one thing, she was a prolific writer of letters and postcards to her family and friends.  What's more, her family and friends were prolific writers as well.  They maintained a social network long before social media on the internet would come into existence. The best part of all that?  Esther kept ALL the letters and postcards she received. Many are dated from before her marriage in 1915.  Even after her death, her husband kept all her things including her letters. It is in reading her letters that I got to know my great grandmother.  She was a pretty amazing woman.

In reading Esther's letters I came to realize that her letters contained not only the stories of my ancestors, but the stories of other people's ancestors, too. I quickly came to realize that  I might have YOUR ancestor(s) in my closet.

So....

I started Dearest Esther to:

• ...let Esther's postcards and letters tell her story and that of her family.
• ...share the information on non-relatives/ancestors with other family researchers.
• ...preserve Esther's letters and postcards by transcribing and scanning them.  After all, many are over 100 years old! 

If you find your ancestor mentioned in Esther's letters, please leave a comment or contact me.