DePauw University Archives

I had heard of DePauw University, like most people probably have but I had no idea it was connected with the Methodist Church and best of all... its in Indiana!  Why am I so excited?  Because my great-great-grandfather was a Methodist minister from Indiana.  DePauw has an extensive archive on everything connected to the Methodist church and Indiana and I was excited to find entries on my John Berger in their Indiana Ministers database.  Thanks to their entries on him, I've been able to fill in what the census has not.  As a "circuit rider" I knew the once a decade census was missing places of residence for him, but thanks to DePauw I've been able to fill in some of the holes of where he lived in the 1860s.  I know this resource won't be of much interest to most genealogists (unless you have Methodist ancestors from Indiana), but it got me excited. 

Best of all, I finally have someone to share John's many letters with.  He wrote most of them in the 1880s to his wife back home while he was on the road preaching to the various German-speaking communities in the Midwest and various other places.  I hope (and think) DePauw will be interested in them and I can't think of a better archive for them (though I won't be parting with the originals any time soon).