Ancestors Newsletter- March 21, 2026

21 Mar Ancestors Newsletter- March 21, 2026

ANCESTORS- THE NEWSLETTER PODCAST STYLE!

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ANCESTORS- THE GRAND ARMY OF THE LADIES

Were two weeks off of celebrating International Women’s Day, but one of our clients had this great picture (colorized by me) from 1917 in London, Ohio, showing their ancestress, a member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. It appears that, with the potato sacks, they’re all peeling potatoes and are being supervised by a man in the back from the GAR, of course, staged with a rebel hat on the floor.

The LGAR was founded by Lelia P. Roby. As a congressionally chartered non-profit organization, it is the oldest women’s hereditary organization in the United States, older than the DAR (founded in 1889). The original objectives of the organization included promotion of patriotism and loyalty to the Union, and participation in community service, especially for the aid of our Veterans and their dependents.”

As original Union veterans of the GAR, organized in 1866, grew old, many women’s groups formed to aid them, their widows, and their orphans. The Loyal Ladies League was established in 1881 as an auxiliary to the GAR; in 1886, the organization went more national and changed its name to “The Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic.” It was incorporated by Public Law 86-47 [S.949] of the 86th Congress on June 17, 1959.

There were many newspaper articles about the LGAR, so I looked for ones my Union Army veteran, Great-Great-Grandfather Henry Adams of Hiawatha, KS, might have read in the local paper and discovered that there was apparently some competition between two of the ladies’ organizations, but the most repeated item was, of course, the advertisement showing that things never really change!

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ANCESTORS- FROM ADAM AND EVE TO THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND

We left off in the last edition with the descent from Adam and Eve to a modern family, culminating in King Henry II of England, born in 1133 (adjacent with Queen Eleanor in their tomb). King Henry’s son was King John, known as “Lackland”. He was nicknamed John Lackland (below left in his tomb) because, as a younger son, he was not expected to inherit significant lands. He became Henry’s favorite child following the failed revolt of 1173–1174 by his brothers Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey against their father. John was appointed Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given lands in England and on the continent. During his brother Richard I’s reign, he unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against Richard’s royal administrators while the King was participating in the Third Crusade, but he was proclaimed king after Richard died in 1199.

John, son of Henry III, born in 1206 (below center), acceded to the throne when he was only nine in the middle of the First Barons’ War. Henry promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, a later version of Magna Carta (1215), which limited royal power and protected the rights of the major barons.

Henry III’s son Edward I, born in 1239, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland and, from 1254 to 1306, ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as Lord Edward. Below is an early-14th-century manuscript initial depicting Edward and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile. The artist has perhaps tried to depict Edward’s blepharoptosis (drooping eyelid), a trait he inherited from his father. More in Edward and his eyelids in the next edition!

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ANCESTORS- COULD THE NFL’S LOS ANGELES RANCHO FRANCISCO ’42ERS HAVE BEATEN THE SAN FRANCISCO ’49ERS?

The first California Gold Rush that never happened. According to a local legend from the Rancho San Francisco (today’s Santa Clarita, CA), Francisco López took a rest under an oak tree in Placerita Canyon on March 9, 1842, and had a dream that he was floating on a pool of gold. When he awoke, he pulled a few wild onions from the ground, finding flakes of gold in the roots.

Contrary to this portrait of him as a farmer who stumbled upon his discovery, López had studied mineralogy at the University of Mexico and had been actively searching for gold. Evidence suggests that gold had been found in the area about 30 years prior, but the López gold find was the first widely documented incident. This sparked a gold rush on a much smaller scale than the 1849 California Gold Rush. About 2,000 people, mostly from the Mexican state of Sonora, came to Rancho San Francisco to mine the gold.

The story goes that the knowledge of the gold find seems to have remained largely within Mexican territory. However, the article below appeared in eastern newspapers in 1842.

John Sutter and his “right-hand man,” John Bidwell, both of whom sided with Governor Manuel Micheltorena during his power struggle with former governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, were imprisoned after the latter’s side won the bloodless Battle of Providencia in 1845. After their release, Bidwell headed north through Placerita Canyon, saw the mining operations, and was determined to search for gold on his way to Sutter’s Fort.

During the Mexican–American War, the locals destroyed the mine to prevent the United States from gaining control. The tree where López took his nap is now known as the “Oak of the Golden Dream” (adjacent) and is registered as California Historic Landmark #168.

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ANCESTORS- WAR PIGEONS AND THEIR MAIDENFORM BRAS

I learned that pigeons were used by the US Navy in Key West during the Spanish-American War to communicate with ships at sea, and later during periods of radio silence.

Looking further, I found that as late as 2016, homing pigeons were used by ISIS to deliver messages. Prior to that, there’s a long history of using homing pigeons as military messengers. 32 pigeons were awarded the Dickin Medal, which was given to 74 different animals who distinguished themselves during wartime. The first recipients of the award, in December 1943, were three pigeons serving with the Royal Air Force who contributed to the recovery of aircrews from ditched aircraft. A couple of the distinguished pigeons, William of Orange and GI Joe, are shown preserved below.

In World War I, they were specifically protected in the UK as defensive assets.

In 1944, the women’s underwear company Maidenform was contracted to manufacture 28,500 pigeon vests for the United States Armed Forces. The fabric used in pigeon vests was porous and tightly woven to prevent damage from their claws, and it covered only the pigeon’s body, leaving its head, feet, and wings free. The devices featured adjustable straps, allowing paratroopers to carry the pigeons more easily. Once they landed, the pigeon’s vest would be undone, and then the pigeon would fly to their homing base. For the safety of the pigeons, it was recommended against confining a pigeon in a pigeon vest for over six hours.

Produced by the undergarment company Maidenform, the pigeon vests had a construction similar to a single bra cup, with corset lacing. They may have also been made from the same materials as bras. Contemporary advertisements for Maidenform bras included pictures of the pigeon vest, claiming “There is a Maidenform for every type of figure.”

After World War II ended, the War Assets Administration salvaged 27,064 pigeon vests as surplus property. The entire batch was purchased by a single dealer. An administration officer with the administration said, “He didn’t say what he planned to do with them. What could anyone do with 27,064 pigeon vests?”

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ANCESTORS- MAR-A-LAGO NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

One of the stories we came across at Cumberland Island National Seashore was about how the government negotiates deals to acquire land in private hands. Typically, they make an offer, and the sooner you accept it, the more you get. Some families try to stretch out the time they have rights to the properties, as in the case of the Carnegies CARNEGIES; some of the property was able to be used by the grandchildren until their deaths, leaving the great-grandchildren feeling kicked out when their parents died.

Another story we came across was about how the Eisenhower’s donated their Gettysburg farm, the only home they had ever owned, to the National Park Service in 1967, with life rights. President Eisenhower died in 1969, and Mamie continued to live there until her death in 1979. Think about when you’ve sold a home, and the new owners show up before closing with tape measures and contractors, in anticipation of making changes, that’s sometimes how it feels with the National Park Service trying to make plans for taking over properties in disrepair as I doubt as an example the Carnegie grandchildren were all about repairs to the properties in their final years.

One interesting example was the former Mar-a-Lago National Historic Site — established on October 21, 1972, and abolished on December 23, 1980 — which certainly has an interesting history. In fact, it’s better than fiction.

In the 1920s, one very satisfying way to display your wealth and social status was to buy beachfront property in Florida, build a “what-God-would-have-built-if-He-had-the-money” mansion on it, and lavishly entertain Very Important People during the winter social season. That’s what heiress and business tycoon Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post Hutton (as in Post cereal and E.F. Hutton ), pictures decided to do on 20 acres of raw, thickly vegetated land on Palm Beach Island. The result was the Marion Wyeth & Joseph Urban-designed Mar-a Lago, one of America’s most luxurious private estates.

It took four years to build Mar-a-Lago, and when the 115-room, 62,500-square-foot (plus) main building was completed in 1927 (pictured below), it was the place to party in Florida. Other socialites followed suit with party-on mansions of their own, soon making Palm Beach a renowned winter haven for what ordinary folk are inclined to call “the filthy rich.”

Mar-a-Lago (Spanish for “Sea-to-Lake”) frequently hosted the International Red Cross Ball, a posh charity event that Mrs. Post inaugurated for the white-tie, tails-and-tiaras crowd. The socialites, ambassadors, and other celebrities invited to events like this during the winter social season were a veritable Who’s Who of the American elite.

Mrs. Post continued to use the Mar-a-Lago property as a winter retreat until her death on September 12, 1973, at age 86. Her will transferred the estate to the Federal government for use as a diplomatic/presidential retreat. However, even before her death, Mar-a-Lago National Historic Site had been established (on January 16, 1969) by order of the Secretary of the Interior and turned over to the National Park Service for administration on October 21, 1972. Mar-a-Lago was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

In 1980, the same year that Mar-a-Lago was designated a National Historic Landmark, Congress returned the estate to the Post Foundation. If it isn’t immediately clear why, consider how expensive it is to maintain and provide presidential-grade security for a place like that.

December 23, 1980, delisting may have been the end of the Mar-a-Lago National Historic Site, but it was not the end of the Mar-a-Lago story. As we now know, future President Donald Trump bought the place in 1985 and gave it a massive renovation and upgrade (adding, among other things, a 20,000-square-foot ballroom). Of course, more headlines about Mar-a-Lago were all about one of the bathrooms.

Fifty years or a hundred years from now, with mounting maintenance costs and in the interest of preserving presidential legacies, will there be a second time around Mar-a-Lago National Historic Site?

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ANCESTORS- WALKING ACROSS MIDDLE AMERICA

This morning on my walk, I met Tim Hickle and his copper kettle wagon. Tim had almost completed his walk from the northernmost point of the continental US to the southernmost point in Key West. He has about 4 miles to go to get to the buoy.

You can see Tim’s morning view below and his journeys across America on his website COPPER KETTLE. Tim mentioned that he lost 35 lbs., but that also included some muscle mass. The first 30 days of his first journey were physically tough, but after that, the tests were all mental.

Of course, Forrest Gump was a fictional movie, so the details on where you hide out during inclement weather, or sleep with the night’s mosquitoes buzzing in your ear, were left out.

That’s where the copper kettle came along. It weighs about 120 lbs. and rolls pretty well uphill, and it doesn’t overtake him downhill with rear controls. I love this comment: “Every post at the end of the trail, and every gate at the park, and every other imaginable obstacle will be 2 inches narrower than the width of the camper.” Read more about outfitting the copper kettle at the link.

He told me his favorite walk was from Norfolk, Nebraska, to Valentine, Nebraska, where he met so many great people. That reminded me that when I was a kid, my cowboy grandfather, pictured below in his 70’s, with dog Oscar joining in, took my year-older cousin Frank on a journey to learn how to be a real man, from California to Valentine, where they worked on a ranch for the summer. I remember Frank telling me that the bathhouse had a window, and he was taking a bath when he saw, above the windowsill, a teenage cowgirl who smiled at him. At 13, I am sure that made the journey worthwhile!

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ANCESTORS- PRESERVE YOUR FAMILY HISTORY, TODAY

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