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Retired local minister meets relatives for first time

January 24, 2012

Rev. Mary Avidano
Rev. Mary Avidano
Through a process that involved many Internet searches and phone calls, Rev. Mary Avidano was recently able to meet many of her relatives in New York and other eastern states for the first time.

Her mother, Madeline Hanke, rode the Orphan Train to Nebraska in 1925 at the age of five. She was raised on a farm in Cedar County, Nebraska.

Mary searched records from many sources, including those from the New York Foundling Hospital released in 2009, to find traces of her mother’s family.

Rev. Mary Avidano and her husband, Rev. Ray Avidano, live at Elgin. Mary is a former minister in Boone County, serving churches in Albion, Akron and Primrose before her retirement in 2008. Her husband now serves as minister of those churches.

(Photo courtesy of Bobbi and Steve Olson)

Details in the Jan. 25 Albion News and Petersburg Press Print & Electronic Editions.

Written by jdickerson · Filed Under Feature