Agnes
Agnes Gargulak
The storyteller of this site. In the memoir she is simply Agnes, writing for her grandchildren. On a Christmas cassette, the children say “Great grandma’s here.” The family knows her as Agnes Gargulak; that surname is not in the memoir text.
Her people in the old country
Her mother Needs a check
Traveled with Agnes from Lipov to America. Agnes does not give her first name in the memoir.
Still to confirm: What was her mother’s name?
Her father Needs a check
Left for America when Agnes was about four months old, and was already there when Mother and Agnes arrived. She does not give his first name in the memoir.
Still to confirm: What was her father’s name?
Mary Stach, “Grandma Doctor”
Agnes’s mother’s mother. Agnes writes that she was very wise, and that she died in 1923, nine years after Mother and Agnes left Bohemia. She lived “until a very great age indeed.”
Uncle Martin
Mayor of Lipov. Agnes remembers his rose garden and his bees.
Her sisters and their families
Sister Mary Needs a check
Named in the memoir’s contents, which include “Sister Mary’s wedding.” The body of the memoir we have does not tell that story in detail.
Still to confirm: Please confirm Mary’s place in the family and her married name, if you know it.
Katherine / Catherine
Agnes’s sister, already in America with Father when Agnes and Mother arrived. The memoir uses both spellings. She was married to Mike Sedlak, who met them at the train. She later lived nearby. Her children included Johnny, who could speak some English and took Agnes to school, and Frankie, who has his own heading in the memoir.
Mike Sedlak
Katherine’s husband. Named by the agent who found the family at the station.
Johnny and Frankie
Agnes’s nephews, Katherine’s children. Johnny helped Agnes at school.
An “oldest sister” on one tape Needs a check
On a later tape Agnes mentions an oldest sister; the name was heard unclearly, perhaps “Edna.”
Still to confirm: Who is the oldest sister, and is “Edna” right?
Her husband and her children
John, her husband Needs a check
On the tapes she calls him John. She says he was a milk hauler for many years (about 27), that he worked in the woods, and that he built the log cabin for her. By Decoration Day weekend in May 1986 she was taking flowers to the cemetery for him, so he had already died. The memoir’s contents list her marriage but do not name him in the text we have.
Still to confirm: Please confirm his full name, and the years they married and he died, if the family wants those on this page.
Her children Needs a check
The tapes mention an oldest son John; a son she calls Johnny, who had a trout pond nearby; a younger son; and a son who was in Korea. She also speaks of grandchildren, granddaughters, and daughters-in-law, including a gathering of 180 people when she was 65. We have not tried to turn these mentions into a finished list of children.
Still to confirm: A simple list of Agnes’s children, in order, with the names the family uses, would make this page much stronger.
Rose, Kirby, Todd, and the Christmas tape
Rose
Kirby’s mother. She appears on the tapes — sometimes as Rosie or Rose — visiting Agnes with her little ones, and on a Christmas recording made with Todd, Kirby, and Agnes. Her husband is called John on the tapes.
John, Rose’s husband
Named on the tapes as Rose’s husband. On the Christmas recording the children talk about what “Daddy” made and hung between two silos.
Kirby and Todd
On the Christmas tape with Rose and Agnes. One of the children says, “Great grandma’s here.” This site is Kirby’s gift to the family.