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Verdie is collecting flowers when Jason drives up and offers to give her a lift down to the church where she plants flowers around her Daddy’s grave. She talk about her past while they plant the flowers and she tells Jason that she does’t really know who she is or where she comes from.
Erin, Elizabeth, Jason and Grandpa are in the kitchen. Jason tells Grandpa that Verdie wants him to help her find out more about her history.
Verdie looks through an old box of pictures and papers of her father’s which includes an old medallion. Harley comes in starving and looking for his meal that Verdie forgot to prepare. She tells Harley she has decided to try and find out all she can about her family. Harley tries to talk her out of it but she is determined to go about her search.
Jason plays his recorder on the porch as Verdie comes up and tells him about the clue she has found. Jason agrees to help her follow the lead in the morning.
On their way to Brightwood, Jason and Verdie talk and she shows him the medallion.
At the Jefferson County Records office the clerk tries to tell them there is no point in looking through the birth records because “those people” didn’t even know how to read or write and most likely didn’t keep records. Jason and Verdie are not going to be deterred or stop for anything. They find the details of Verdie’s birth record. She was born at 3:30 am on October 11th, 1898 at 12 Elm Place to Edward and Ethel Harris.
Jason and Verdie pull up to what was once her childhood home. She meets a husband and wife who remember her! They talk and share some hospitality but they can’t really help her with her daddy’s family. He just didn’t talk much about his family and past. When she shows Mr. Nelson the medallion he gets real quiet and is not sure what to say or think about it. Then he remembers that Verdie’s grandparents died in an epedemic and are buried in Scottsville.
Outside as they get back in the car Jason and Verdie talk about solving her mystery.
Jason talks to Daddy on the porch about going to Scottsville with Verdie in the morning. Grandpa comes out and sits down. Daddy reveals that there was a flood in 1915 and the records before then where destroyed. Jason says they will go through the cemeteries and try to find a head stone. Jason realizes after studying the dates that Verdie’s grandpa must have been a slave.
At Verdie’s house Harley tries again to talk Verdie out of her search. He says that the further back in time and the deeper she digs the uglier she’ll find things.
Verdie and Jason search a couple cemeteries with no luck and then suddenly find some old tombstones leaning against the fence. She finds her grandparents Albert and Etta Harris.
The church has old records which they look at to collect more information. The man there reveals that the medallion is one like slaves from Africa had on when they came to America.
They find the family name Unwin attached to her grandfather’s death record. They inquire about the name with the church pastor who directs them to the house where Albert her grandfather was born. Jason and Verdie talk about slavery and how it’s hard to talk about it. They are not welcome when the lady of the house sees them. She tells them to go away, she is bitter and hard because of the war and all that her family lost due to the outcome. Verdie becomes upset and doesn’t want to continue.
Jason brushes Chance in the barn. Grandpa comes in and asks about Verdie and what happened. Grandpa suggests that he try and talk to Miss Estelle.
Grandpa, Jason and Verdie show up at the Unwin place. Grandpa tries to reason with Estelle. They try to convince Estelle that her family OWNED Verdie’s. Somehow they crack through her tough exterior and Estelle agrees to let them look at the records in her attic.
Jason and Verdie look at some old records that unfortunately had suffered from rain damage and are ineligible. Verdie comes to terms with it being an end but then they look in a desk and find a book containing several drawn portraits of family and slaves. They find a picture of a man named Seth who was renamed Rudolph with his son Albert. Verdie has found a picture of her grandfather AND great grandfather. Jason leaves Verdie to see if Estelle will give the image to her.
Verdie and Jason talk be the river. Verdie desires to go across the ocean to learn more about her people someday or maybe her children or their children will go if she can’t.
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