Welcome Kim: a new DM Study Group member

From: kim_ostermyer@yahoo.com
DearMYRTLE,
I'm writing to say that I would am interested in joining your research group here in Salt Lake. Could you tell me when the research trips typically occur? I work Fri-Mon and am wondering if there might be a conflict with when your group meets.

DearKIM,
Good morning and Thank-you so much for writing to express an interest in joining DearMYRTLEʼs Salt Lake Study Group. Eventually I’d like to start one in the Bountiful or Ogden area as well.

Our monthly meetings are from 6:30-9pm usually on the third Tuesday of the month. You should be able to attend nearly all of our field trips which are held on Saturdays once a month, unless the research facility is not open (as in the case of the LDS Church History Library not to be confused with the Family History Library.) Weʼre going to have only one more meeting this summer (in August) owing to my travel schedule in July. By September we should have the rest of the 2008 meetings and field trips scheduled.

Please tell me where you are in your research, (i.e. where your ancestors lived, major surnames, the type of documents youʼve uncovered thus far, online research experience, level of microfilm/fiche or manuscript research, etc.) I am very interested in learning about your brick walls, etc.

From: Kim
DearMYRTLE,
I'm actually a bit relieved that the next meeting will be in August. I have a major genealogy project that will be finished in the last part of July or the beginning of August. I'm alluding to the fact that my wife is expecting our first child, which is very exciting for us.

In regards to my research background: I have been doing genealogy since about 2003, which makes me seem like the new kid on the block. Major names that I am researching include but are not limited to: Lupton, Delap (also DeLapp, Dunlap, Dunlop), Kester, Newell and Shotwell.

I have research through many of the basic documents, such as wills, probates, war pensions, family bibles, census records, etc. etc. I have looked over plenty of microfilm and fiche at the Family History Library as well as other locations such as the Wyoming State Archives and the Wyoming at the Sheridan (Wyoming) Fulmer Public Library. I have also spent innumerable hours on Ancestry.com, Rootsweb.com, many of the Genweb sites, the National Archives website as well as that of the Library of Congress. I spent some time working as a library consultant in Casper, Wyoming at the local Family History Center and helping patrons locate their ancestors.

I have also found that some of the best information, in terms of contexual information, can be derived from scholarly research, as in thesies and dissertations. I have found this to be extremely helpful when researching war pensions in particular.

I am an avid user of RootsMagic and prior to RootsMagic was a dedicated user of Legacy. I maintain a personal database of over 60,000 names and have two four-drawer filing cabinets that are gradually being filled in with data.

In terms of brick walls, I have some good news in that regard, I have only a couple that are really bugging me. One is my father's side of the family, which is a tremendously German side. While I am intrigued by researching his side of the family, I'm extremely frustrated by the records whether they are Catholic parish records in Iowa (written in Latin) or trying to find the charter for whatever ship the Ostermyers may have come over on. In the last point, there may be a reason for this: family lore suggests that my great-great grandfather Andrew Ostermyer, Sr. worked in the engine room of the ship that he and his eventual bride traveled on to the United States. A bunch of speculation surrounds the events of their arrival. I do have some immigration information passed on to me from a grandaunt.

The next brickwall is a lesson that we all learn. I admit that some of my early research was not up to par.. Let's just say that I made a mistake on being naive about information found online. My maternal grandmother is a DeLapp and I had some amazing luck with finding the DeLapps and the various spellings through Ancestry.com and a multitude of the databases it contains. I even contacted a woman in Indiana with whom I corresponded with and shared information with her. We had both gone back to a James Delap from New Jersey born abt. 1755.

Somewhere, I had made a connection between James Delap and William and Ruth Delap in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Apparently I believed there to be a credible connection between these folks--why else had I entered it? A few years passed and a fellow Delap descendent sent me an inquiry regarding the family tree that I had so diligently posted on Ancestry.com with the caveat that people should contact me for details regarding my research. And so he did. He asked for the link I had between William and James, and being the guy who likes to help his fellow researcher, I combed my archives for that piece of information.

I couldn't find it. The link I found between the two was speculation on my part and based on shoddy evidence that was rather incongruous to say the least. I was at the time, and still am mildly devastated by the turn in events. Had the line with William and Ruth been correct, my line would reach back, fairly credibly, to the 1400s. When this happened, I was immersed into the family lore and was loving it! I found the development of the family to be profoundly interesting.

When I realized that I had messed things up, my heart sank. I've had to take some time away to think about things and find some clarity. So, now I have a rather gaping hole on one branch of my tree where some interesting folks once resided.

My ancestors lived just about everywhere. I do have concentrations in the Midwest (Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio), Virginia, and the Northeast (Western New York state, Connecticut, Maryland).

I also have the typical westward migration story that weaves from Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming.

The European connection involves some Welsh, English and the aforementioned Germans.

I am constantly trying to refine my research process and am a loyal reader of several blogs, including yours, Dick Eastman's, the Ancestry Insider, and a few lesser known ones. I recently joined the social networking site WeRelate.org and have already had some interaction that has helped give me some leads.

That's my experience in a nutshell.

DearKIM,
Thank-you for your detailed reply. I look forward to meeting with you in August, when hopefully youʼll have some pictures of the newest twig on your family tree.

In the mean time, play catch up by subscribing to the RSS feed for the Teach Genealogy Blog. You will find several of the participants in this group are beginners who havenʼt yet developed the ability to analyze reliability of documents collected or to place oneʼs research conclusions into perspective. (Actully I think we ALL need to keep reviewing our work in the context of newly emerging ancient record sources.) Several are quite experienced with microfilm and the Family History Library, some havenʼt begun to look beyond previously compiled online databases and scanned images. Others have heard about their early Utah pioneer ancestry, but have no source for these stories other than family tradition..

As the online availability of what Olʼ Myrt here calls ʽsource documentsʼ increases, there will be more confusion among fledgling genealogists who must learn that just because itʼs online doesnʼt mean itʼs the gospel truth.

The goal in this SL Study Group is to encourage and inspire, and have each participant share current research successes & challenges with the group,. Some attend every session, others have active lives that sometimes preclude getting together with the group.

My task as the study group coordinator is to make each researcher feel positive regardless of attendance or experience level.

Growth as researchers is likely to occur in a positive, supportive environment.

Thank-you for permission to post our emails at http://blog.TeachGenealogy.com. You never know who will find your posting in a Google Search, and hopefully make another cousin connection with you for sharing research challenges.

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com
http://blog.DearMYRTLE.com
http://blog.TeachGenealogy.com

© 2008 Pat Richley All Rights Reserved. Myrt welcomes queries and research challenges, but regrets she is unable to answer each personally.