Delp Family Research

In presenting an overview of our research into the Delp branch of our Family Tree, we will cover history, current efforts, road blocks, and acknowledgments:

History

In chronological order, we present here the highlights of progress made toward understanding more about this branch of our family tree:

• Records of Ruth Ethelyn (Delp) Picklum:  The author had the privilege of meeting this very fine lady in her later years and she willing helped with what she knew of her family's ancestry.  She and her daughter, Laura, had two items in their possession which were most helpful.  One was a little booklet, "the Tree of the Family Delp," which had been started by her mother, Neva, and Ruth had finished.  This little booklet showed the descendants and parents of her parents, Francis Eugene "Frank" and Neva Lorraine (Swartout) Delp.  The other was a single line of descent for our branch of the Delp family back to our "immigrant ancestor," Johann Georg "Hans" Delp.
  
  Both of these sources provided an invaluable starting point for the author's research into this branch of our family tree.
• Census and vital record searches, I:  With the information from Ruth's records, census and vital record searches were made at the LDS Family History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah in the late 1970s.  Considering the time and effort necessary to go through these records and the author's interest level at that point in time, these searches yielded very little.  Since a skeleton of information existed showing the Delp family line back to Europe, this branch of the family tree was allowed to go into a "deep sleep ..."
• Obituary of Ellen Almira (Doolittle) Delp:  With the dates provided by Ruth Picklum and her recollections of her family's history during their stay in Marshall county, Kansas, the author was able to obtain a copy of the obituary of Ellen Almira (Doolittle) Delp.  This was an invaluable source of information about her and her children, renewing the author's interest in completing more details about this branch of the family.
• Census and vital record searches, II:  With the appearance of U. S. Census records on the Internet in 2001, combined with the information provided in Ellen Delp's obituary,  the author was able to make significant strides in completing the family group of George and Ellen Delp.  This information was organized in a genealogy program and the results posted on World Connect, a wonderful Web site sponsored by RootsWeb.
• Delp Family Contacts:  After several months, the author received his first contact with a Delp family descendant from another branch of the family, based upon the work done after discovering Ellen Delp's obituary.  After exchanging e-mail messages for a period, this distant cousin sent an old family history manuscript completed years earlier by an older distant cousin.   This manuscript contained the pictures found elsewhere on these pages of George and Ellen Delp.  It also filled in some gaps about earlier Delp family history.
• Census and vital record searches, III:  With the information made available from the above-mentioned manuscript, the author made one last pass through U. S. Census records and others available on the Internet to bring our knowledge of the Delp branch of our family tree to its present point.

Current Efforts

With the knowledge we have obtained about the "skeleton" of this branch of our family, efforts are now ongoing to flesh this out with more stories, pictures, etc. to hopefully be provided by older members of the family.  As these become available, these pages will be expanded for the benefit of all.

Road Blocks

None at the moment.

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge here our indebtedness and appreciation for the following people, who have helped us reach our present understanding of this branch of our family tree:

• Ruth Ethelyn (Delp) Picklum and daughter, Laura:  Without their records, we would have encountered a significant barrier to retracing the Delp family's migrations backwards from California to Kansas to Nebraska to Illinios to Pennsylvania.  There are few greater challenges to the family historian than reverse tracing these migrations.  Fortunately for this branch of our family tree, we did not have to do that.
• Geraldine (Fly) Donaldson:  While the author has never met or been in contact with this person, our family is indebted to her for her efforts in putting together the above mentioned family history manuscript.  It contains a lot of useful information and the very old pictures of George and Ellen Delp found on these pages.  Thank you Geraldine!!
• Joan Wieringa:  Without this person taking an interest in her family's history, she never would have found our database on World Connect, and we would still not have ever seen the work of Geraldine Donaldson.   Joan is the kind soul who sent portions of this family manuscript along to the author.  Thank you Joan!!

May each of you enjoy many happy returns on the helpfulness you have provided and kindness you have demonstrated to your extended family members and distant cousins!   Without the assistance of each of you in your own indispensible way, we would never have come to our present understanding of our family ancestry.

The author would be most grateful if anyone uncovering more
information would be so kind as to pass it on.

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Author: Roger L. Roberson, Jr.   •   Last updated: 27 March 2003