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Archiver > GUS-REEB > 2004-08 > 1093644479


From:
Subject: Re: [GUS-REEB] Introductions Please
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 18:07:59 EDT


Hello Cousins,

Aileen kinda showed me up (wink) in her introduction by actually introducing
herself, while I just wrote out my family lineage. So, I'm going to take
another crack at the introduction.

Hi, my name is Harlan Merle Zeinstra. I'm the first son and second child of
five. I am currently living in Lafayette, Colorado, just east of Boulder
(10 minutes) and north of Denver (30 minutes). I haven't always lived here but
was born and raised in Pipestone, Pipestone County, Minnesota. After
graduating from Pipestone High School and Saint Cloud State University I lived in
the Minneapolis, Minnesota area for many years. Eight years ago our family
moved to Boulder County, Colorado. My occupation is a Certified Public
Accountant and I have my own small accounting firm, licensed & working in the states
of Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I work primarily in corporate audit
and taxation with nonprofit and cooperatives organizations.

I began my genealogy research many years ago in an attempt to document my
wife's family claim that they are descended from Dr. Samuel Fuller of the
Mayflower. Years later and thousands of names recorded, I still have not been
able to prove my initial task.

After several months of researching the Fuller line my mother subtly asked
me if I was interested in my own family tree. Seems my paternal grandmother
was interested in genealogy and she had documented the Zeinstra family tree
before her death. This was, as I imagine many of you, the beginning of an
obsession to locate and document our family information. Once I had documented
several generations, I discovered empty tree roots. Well, you know how
accountant's always like things to "balance," and one side of the family tree was
pretty heavily weighted, so it was time to research my mother's Raph family
name. Now years later we know that the name Raph was once Reeb, but at the
time we didn't know this and to make matter worse, my brick wall was an orphan
who had lived in Wisconsin and his name had been spelled Rape (not quite the
same as Raph). Well, after many years of research and a lot of missing pieces
to a puzzle that I didn't know what it would look like, I was told that
there was a genealogist named John V. Reeb that thought there was a connection
between the Raph name and the Reeb name. Well, this seems like an odd idea,
but my first cousin Darvin D. Raph had decided to join a DNA test with the Reeb
family to see if the connection could be validated. The results said yes,
and this validated the research that was already done by John V. Reeb and you
know the rest of the story.

I know from talking to John V. Reeb that his side of this story is much more
extensive and I am sure glad that I have had the opportunity to talk to John
about our family.

So, without further adieu, once again this is my lineage:


Harlan Merle Zeinstra (me)
Harvey Zeinstra & Carol Ann Raph (my parents)
Merlye Henry Raph & Elsie Emma Augusta Schierholz (my grandparents)
Arthur Berton Raph & Cora Mae Zarn (my great grandparents
Henry Harrison Raph & Susan Adaline Cornwell (my 2 greats grandparents)
David Reeb & Margaret Ruggles (my 3 greats grandparents)
Heinrich (Henry) Reeb & Catharine Barbara Heiny (my 4 greats grandparents)
Johann Michael Reeb & Catharina Witmer( my 5 greats grandparents)
Gustavus Reeb & Anna Margaretha Stroh (my 6 greats grandparents)
Johann Peter Reeb & Anna Margaretha Guth (my 7 greats grandparents)
Johann Nicolaus Reeb & Catharina Wuerth (my 8 greats grandparents)
Heinrich Reeb & (Unknown) (my 9 greats grandparents)

I would love to know your family lineage and if for some reason you wish
certain living people to remain anonymous, well, I can live with that too. I
just record the missing generation(s) as "boy" or "girl" and if I have a sur
name I do include that.

Wishing you the best,
Harlan M. Zeinstra
Lafayette, Colorado



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