Theresa Harlan and her husband Tiger at Laird’s Landing
Theresa Harlan’s mother grew up on the Point Reyes Peninsula during the 1920s in a mixed race household. Her father was Swiss-Italian and her mother was of both coast Miwok and Filipino descent. The family lived on the edge of Tomales Bay at the place now known as Laird’s Landing, and both her parents worked on nearby ranches. In this show, Theresa talks about their life there with her cousin, Pam Jensen, who grew up across the bay (at the oyster farm that had been in her family for generations).
Today, neither Theresa nor Pam have any close family left in the area. Theresa says that many Native America families moved away during World War II, including her mother. Her grandmother passed on, and her uncle lost the land to a local rancher after a court battle during the 1950s. In this show, Theresa talks about her mother’s stories of her childhood on the point, and what it meant to her mom as an adult when the tribe finally gained Federal recognition. Listen to the show by clicking the arrow below, or download the mp3 here.:
Photos of Theresa’s family’s homestead are below, taken when her mother was young. And tune in on June 21 for the next episode of Story Shed. In it, we will go with Pam Jensen to visit the place where Jensen’s Oyster Company once stood and hear about her family’s life on the shores of Tomales Bay.
The Campigli family home at Laird’s Landing
Theresa’s mom, Elizabeth Campigli, with Henry Jensen
Bertha Felix Campigli with her cow at Laird’s Landing
The Story Shed 
January 30th, 2015 at 1:34 pm
Bertha Felix was my great grand mother.. there are only a couple of our elders left in the family and my mother is one of them, Gladys Mainini (Jason) the oldest kid out of 7 kids. She is now 78 and lives in Yerington, NV and her younger brother Tom Jason and his family who live in Petaluma and the youngest daughter Arlene De La Houssaye who lives in San Francisco with her kids and her grand children also many, many cousins. There is so many family members that I can’t even count all of us. I have been searching for my ancestors I have gotten as far as I believe my great-great-great grand mother Euphrasia Felix.
January 11th, 2016 at 2:22 am
Bertha Felix was my great grand mother.. there is so many family members living that Im just beginning to get to know who is who 🙂 Elaine Pozzi was my grand mother and Gladys Mainini (Jason) was my mother. We just lost my mother Gladys this past Nov 30th,2015 and she was mother of 4 and grandmother, great grand mother even great-great grand mother!!