by AGS Member Lark M. Robart
By all accounts, last week’s Annual Holiday Party was a huge success! With delicious snacks and a great turnout, it was wonderful to catch up with old friends and welcome a few new ones. As always, the ‘Show & Tell’ portion was the highlight of the event. For those who couldn’t make it, I’ve shared a few of the unique stories and items presented by our members below.
(And don’t forget to click on the photos if you’d like to see a larger image.)
Molly Shannon shared several photos and the following story about her paternal grandmother, Lucinda Holland.
“This is the wedding portrait of my Paternal Grandmother Lucinda Holland. She was born in Richhill, Armagh, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). She was the middle child of Mathilda Gardinier and Thomas Holland. Her mother died when Lucinda was a girl. I have been unable to track her older sister but have kept up with the descendants of her younger brother. A story for another time!
At age 17, Lucinda left Richhill and most likely traveled by cart to Derry where she boarded a boat to Glasgow, Scotland. There she boarded the Devonia and sailed across the Atlantic. She entered the U.S. through Castle Garden immigration center, the precursor to Ellis Island. She then boarded one of several trains which carried her across the continent to San Francisco, California.
I have speculated – based on some family lore – that she was a mail order bride, but more likely she was an indentured servant. In her later years, she took in laundry and sewing and those skills might have made her employable in a wealthier Irish home in San Francisco.
Years ago, I began a novel loosely based on her life and used the mail order bride scenario. She finds the groom has greatly misrepresented himself, which was not uncommon. He was far older and abusive. She flees to a women’s shelter. One day a wealthy woman patron and her maid visit the shelter looking for new house staff. The maid and Lucinda recognize each other from their village and Lucinda becomes employed. The woman’s husband is the President of a bank and at Christmas time, they hold a “Downton Abbey” party for their household staff and bank employees. Of course, Lucinda and William Turner Ashman, who is a clerk at the bank, meet and marry. To be continued.
On her ring finger in the wedding portrait, I noticed a ring. When I zoomed in, it was an Ah HA! Moment!! When I was a young woman, my mother had given me a few pieces of my grandmother’s jewelry, and yes – I have the ring!
This is a photo of Lucinda in her later years. Sadly, I met her once when I was about 3 or 4 years old and she died when I was 6. I have letters and more photos and so much more to learn.”
Tiffani Loiacono shared the following:
“In 2025, one of my most meaningful genealogical milestones was the successful approval of my supplemental lineage with the Mayflower Society. I successfully documented descent from John Cooke.
John Cooke was born in Leiden to Francis Cooke and Hester Mahieu, the latter a Walloon refugee who fled religious persecution much like the members of the Mayflower. She became part of the Walloon Reformed community in the Netherlands. John thus grew up within an international refugee environment shaped by English Separatists, Walloons, and Dutch neighbors.
John was married to Sarah Warren, daughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. Tracing their lives reinforced for me that genealogical discoveries are not only about individuals but about understanding the larger historical context of their lives.”
Frankie Ewing shared a trip that she and her husband David took to Norway and Sweden in September 2025.
“In Norway, we spent a few days in Oslo and saw the beautiful Opera House, designed to look like an iceberg, and many other interesting sights.
After a few days in Oslo, we drove to Telemark. On the way, we passed the incredible Heddal Stave Church.
In Telemark, we visited my 4th cousin 2x removed Egil Tveit in the valley of Lake Nisser. Many of my Norwegian ancestors lived around this lake. We visited the Onstad Farm where my grandfather John Henry Onstad was born and which his father had sold before emigrating to the United States with his wife and nine children in 1866. At the Onstad farm we met other Onstad cousins who now own the farm.
After visiting Telemark, we flew to Kirkenes, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, and took the Nordnorge, a Hurtigruten Ferry, down along the fjord-indented coast to Bergen, visiting many small villages along the way.
In Sweden, we met David’s Swedish cousins and their extended families and toured churches and cemeteries where his Björk ancestors lived.
Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden, were lovely cities with many museums and sites too numerous to mention. This was a trip of a lifetime which we will remember always.”
Rosemary McNerney Winkler brought in a very special keepsake and shared the story below.
“My mother, born in 1917 in Deming, New Mexico, was named Rosemary by her uncle, her mother’s brother. He was born in 1899 in Magdelana, New Mexico, and died of tuberculosis in 1919 in San Marcial, New Mexico. The family had come to NM for the climate to avoid tuberculosis.
An admirer made this special box for her and carved Rosie on the lid when she was at St. Mary’s High School in Albuquerque in the early 1930s. I was named for her and inherited the box, now my prized possession.
When Jacob L. Umbrage’s father died in the flu epidemic in 1919, he had to quit school at the age of nine and took a job at the sawmill. It was a dangerous job and his mother was required to sign a document that if anything happened to him, the sawmill was blameless.
Jacob witnessed a boy die after being caught by a blade. Later, Jacob injured his hand badly by a saw and went to Dr. Lovelace’s clinic. The doctor motioned him in immediately and saved his hand, years before penicillin was available.
These were hard times in Albuquerque and New Mexico, but the box survived and holds the history.”
Karen Jones shared a historic deed . . . and a peek into a replica of an old Sears Catalog
“Family historians often find themselves recipients of old stuff that their relatives don’t want anymore. Thus, we have lots of things to show and tell.
One of the things that came to me along with my Grandfather Wendleton’s business records was an old parchment deed. I did not recognize the name on it, so filed it away for later study. When I eventually looked at it more closely, I discovered it was a deed issued from the United States Land Office in Franklin, Missouri, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson! (The town of Franklin was the original start of the Santa Fe Trail, just across the Missouri River from where I was born.) This original deed describes a quarter section of land (160 acres) purchased by Samuel Griffith in 1832, that was eventually bought by the Wendleton family around 1900. The deed is fully legible with seal intact and suitable for framing.
My Grandpa and Grandma Wendleton were married in 1908 and probably bought many things for their home from the Sears & Roebuck catalog. I was given a 1971 reproduction of the 1908 catalog that showed what they might have bought for their home and farm.
At that time, plans and materials for a three-bedroom farmhouse could be bought from Sears for about $750. A farm wagon or a buggy cost less than $60. For the home, a top-of-the-line three-piece oak bedroom suite was priced at $24.85, a piano for $68, and a hand-cranked washing machine for about $5. Grandma could buy nice shoes, dress, corset, and hat for less than $2 each. The current Sears & Roebuck catalog was a fixture in every home, and even served when it was outdated, in the outhouse.”
Thanks to everyone who helped make this event a success!
