Lynn Holloman Fusinato - A Remembrance of a Hollyman Genealogist

by Glenn N. Holliman

One of the delights of the 21st Internet and retirement is to have the means and time to discover and get to know distant cousins, especially those who share an interest in our family roots.  Tens of thousands living in the United States today trace their roots to a son of a leather-worker and innkeeper in Bedford, England, one Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691).  

One of the genealogists who dug deep into her ancestral roots was Lynn Holloman Fusinato (1946-2018), who due to pancreatic cancer, passed away at her home on January 11, 2018 in Richardson, Texas . 

Lynn and husband Bob at the Hollyman Seminar in Isle of Wight, Virginia, April 2016.

Bob kindly wrote me of her death several weeks ago and shared information on her deep avocation of discerning her family origins.

"Tracing family roots became one of Lynn's passions.  Retirement afforded her the opportunity to devote more time and travel to it.  Lynn and I made many trips to Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia visiting courthouses, local libraries and state archives to find original source material about her relatives, going back to the Revolutionary War with one branch.  As you say she hails from Hollemans in Wake County, North Carolina.  

To her, genealogy was more than just family trees.  it was also about the stories and lives of her ancestors.  She has written a number of carefully researched papes which she shared with others....she had more work to to do and more pamphlets to write.  

However, one of her last requests to me was to gather her source material on her Holloman lines and pass it on to you."  (This is the Hollyman virtual archives at www.bholliman.com, a web storage facility for Hollyman and related families.) 

Below a meeting of Texas Hollyman genealogists in November 2015.  Left to right, Joseph Parker, Lynn Holliman, this writer - Glenn N. Holliman and our generous hostess for the day, Lynn Fusinato.

Lynn is the daughter of Miles Edward and Wilhemina (Billie) Prater Holloman of Lexington, Mississippi.  She graduated valedictorian of her home town high school and went on to acquire both bachelor and masters degrees in chemistry and computer science.   After marriage to Bob Fusinato and his service in the U.S. Navy during the 1970s, the couple settled permanently in Texas.  Highly educated and high energy, she both worked in the technical sciences and raised two children, Carolyn and Robert. 

Above, Lynn in  2015 shared coffee and her deep knowledge of family history with three distant cousins.  Her smile will be missed by family, both close and far....

Our thanks to her husband, Bob, who in his time of loss, has shared his thoughts and the story of Lynn's commitment to discovering and preserving our mutual histories for future generations. - GNH