So I just like to come please them too info equal pieces so that when they grow
stupidly Jesse Tyler Ferguson is a celebrated actor on stage and screen but
it's his current role as Mitchell Pritchett on the highly acclaimed sitcom
Modern Family that launched him into the spotlight and earned him four Emmy
nominations Jesse's career continues to thrive on TV and in the theatre he lives
with his husband Justin in the hills above Los Angeles
are you excited Jesse I am excited I'm a little nervous but I'm excited my dad's
name is Robert Ferguson my mother's name is Anne Boyle my parents divorced when I
was 18 I'm but they both still live in Albuquerque New Mexico I came from a
very stable sometimes mundane and boring family and I really do appreciate that
but there was no there was no the drama bout it really longed for when I was you
know a moody 16 year old kid who loved theater both of my parents are very
strong-willed and I feel like they passed that along to me I have a
stubbornness about me at times I don't I don't back down and I don't quit when I
hear no my mom is very strong and she just made things happen and we've
grandparents on my mom's side was very close with and my dad's mom I was also
very close with I'm actually named after her and I had a special bond with her
my grandma Jesse was hilarious she definitely like spoke her mind she
passed away six years ago she was a great lady
the moment like my grandmother passed away it did sort of feel like this sort
of final moment of like and now your history is capped history shut down and
closed for the day and you know you don't have that person
to talk to to get those personal stories from I am very excited to explore my
dad's side just because I I get sad because I I think I did there's so much
I don't know about my history and my grandma's calling I want to fill up out
those branches of the family tree because right now it's like a stump it
was this really sad stump with like one branch I need to it's like it has more
going on up here
so I'm heading to my hometown Albuquerque New Mexico to talk to my dad
Bob Ferguson
I always like coming back to Albuquerque it wasn't the greatest place to grow up
it's might surprise you but a redhead with mics my skin tone it's doesn't
really want to be raised in the desert but it's fun to come back to and visit
now hello I'm Josh so I've come here today to try and find out more
information on your side of family specifically grandma Jessie in her
history she's kind of where it ends for me I don't know anything beyond her so
I'm very excited to figure out how far back I can go with with that side of
family let's look at some of the photos maybe this'll jog some questions here
this was an early pictures all my favorite pictures he did I was very key
you were a cute little hockey puck this is a picture of my mother was a very
classy photo I've seen this picture I want a copy of this this is grandma
Jessie yeah and this is my maternal granddaughter
Jesse wheat uppercu okay okay I did not know I was named after him as well all
right so this is grandma Jesse's dad my great-grandfather correct
JW epic you look at that top hat yeah well he was a lawyer
oh I hope they did say a lawyer on television I know something about that
never you I do remember my mom saying that he was born in Maryland she looks
like you dad a little bit Christmas Day 1923 a modest token of affection from
your husband to Elizabeth upper cute so this is Elizabeth
my great grandmother correct is it's very modest although this is his token
of affection just him looking for him they had Wow
that's where your knowledge ends - pretty much kind of what mine does yeah
I just learned that my great-grandmother was Elizabeth and my great-grandfather
was Jesse wheat uppercu so grandma Jesse and I obviously got our names from him
so now I'm curious to see if I can find anything about my great-grandfather
online we should google Jesse uppercu
law Maryland all right I'm not seeing anything here so maybe can refine the
google search and I have seen my grandfather's name spelled with an e on
the okay Jesse uppercu with an e
Baltimore the Baltimore murder oh my god Baltimore Maryland August 27th
miss Amelia weeds page 78 residing a number 634 long bird street was murdered
in her bed by shooting at about two o'clock this morning
her nephew named Jesse uppercu has been hooked arrested charged with the murder
oh my gosh
did you know about this hill I didn't oh my god Jesse uppercu age 22 was in the
house and first gave the alarm of the murder on the arrival the officer upper
Q stated that during the night his aunt called to him and requested him to come
in her room as she felt nervous I guess he lived with her he did so laying down
on the bed by the side of miss wheet and shortly thereafter fell asleep how long
he slept he does not know but was suddenly awakened by the report of a
pistol when he discovered a man retreating from the room to the front
door he instantly sprang from the bed and fired two shots from his own
revolver at the retreating robber and murderer who escaped
miss wheet was shot through the left temple okay well just got juicy really
fast Capri Q is a law student and is said to
have sustained an unexceptionable reputation among those who knew him
meaning he was an upstanding individual yeah we think back when you were 22
years old I think back when I was 25 years old you do some crazy things you
don't shoot your aunt he obviously did not end up in prison or did he I don't
know maybe he spent some time in jail so I don't know really where to go from
here at this point maybe a historian could help clarify some of these details
head to Maryland yeah that's a good idea I mean we really jumped into the deep
end with his because murder was not something that I was expected to see if
this was like a distant distant distant relative it might be a different thing
but knowing that it was my grandmother who I knew so well and it was her father
that makes it so much more palpable and so much more real
the details of the actual murder and his account of it there's something very
strange about the story the dots don't really line up for me I don't know I
mean I can't imagine how anything could get crazier
you