We are affectionately known as "UMs". There may be many VARIANT SPELLINGS of the name, but WE'RE ALL UMs. Umstead is the spelling most commonly used today and as such will be used as our primary spelling in the hope that ALL UMs will be able to easily find us.

 

We would like UM CENTRAL to become a one-stop site for UM genealogy, history, and, most importantly, a place for cousins to FIND FAMILY. We are first and foremost about family. It's great to be an UM and it's going to get even greater as we go.

 

We believe that most of the UMs in the United States are direct descendants of or somehow related to HANS PETER UMSTATT and his wife Barbara, who arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1685, with their children JOHANNES UMSTAT, EVE UMSTAT (who married HENDRICK PANNEBECKER), and ANNA MARGARETHA UMSTAT. We know that Hans Peter was the son of NICHOLAS UMSTAT of Germany.

 

There are many unsolved UM MYSTERIES. There were other UM immigrants who arrived at later dates. We've found UMs appearing in various records that we've not yet identified or connected, and we call them our "ORPHans." There are several branches of UM descendants that we've not yet been able to connect. This IS a work in progress.

 

We have no desire to leave anyone out, but our team of researchers is committed to presenting as fact only that information which is well-documented and dependable. As a result, this site will develop only as quickly as original records and reliable secondary sources are found, and as we are able to complete the research required.

 

Any conclusions or observations made on this site will ALWAYS be subject to later or better information and to the reader's own verification. Original records will not always be reproduced here, or not always in their entirety, depending on permissions. Exact source references and where to obtain copies of original records used will be included within each item, whenever possible. Original records written in German will be translated by persons familiar not only with that language and old script, but who have been educated in the historical, cultural, and church practices in effect at the time.

 

We will not publish gedcoms, nor will we publish genealogical or personal information on living individuals on this site. The UM Master Family Tree and the Descendant Name and Address List are maintained offsite. YOUR PRIVACY MATTERS TO US. Please contact Cris Hueneke to share this type of information or to see how you connect.

 

We will do all we can to respect copyrights, to seek permission before using published material, and to give credit where it is due to anyone or to any entity. We have no desire or intention to take or to use anyone else's material inappropriately. If you find anything on this site that you believe has violated any copyright YOU hold, please contact us.

 

We encourage links to this site and we welcome UM and allied family links. As a family, however, we ask that gedcoms including living UM descendants PLEASE not be published on the Internet. We know that information is often public domain and we know that we can neither control nor police this. We hope that you will join us in telling people who publish other people's personal information, often without their knowledge or permission, that IT IS NOT OK!!! If you've not yet found personal information about yourself on the Internet, it's only a matter of time or of looking harder. This practice causes people to be wary of sharing their information and is having an increasingly negative effect on genealogy. Please tell us about any sites you find that include living UMs. We will not accept links to any site that includes information on ANY living individuals.

 

We will consider original or previously published articles you would like to submit on various illustrious UMs, history, or current events, providing that they adhere to our privacy and copyright standards. Appropriate permissions should be obtained PRIOR TO submitting. We must always be sensitive to the best interests of family members. Submitted material will be subject to approval and correction by our researchers and editors. Please don't let any of this discourage you, instead let's work together to make Umstead.org an outstanding site and one of which we can all be proud. Every standard we set today will help to set the standards that others will follow tomorrow.

 

Material presented on this site IS copyrighted, however printing for non-commercial personal use and for distribution to historical repositories is encouraged, as long as each item is printed in full and all information is fully credited to both this site and to any individual submitters. Any other use, including uploading to other websites or publishing in any other medium, in full or in part, requires WRITTEN PERMISSION PRIOR TO SUCH USE. The absence of this or other copyright notice on any individual page on this site is not to be construed as permission for use other than as stated here.

 

I am just one of the many UM descendants who have been frustrated by all the misinformation that abounds on our UM roots. I do not claim to be an expert. I simply gather original records and use them turn previously published, traditionally believed, and shared errors into a documented account of who Nicholas and Hans Peter really were and where they really came from. My only qualifications for this job are creativity and relentlessness. I am blessed to have exceptional resources to accomplish this task in that I have many friends who live in Germany, a German-born husband, and a working knowledge of the German language. There are many people who have chased documents, transcribed and helped translate material. To all of them, I am grateful. Many other UM descendants and researchers of Germantown or collateral lines are involved in this ongoing project. I descend from Henry, son of Johannes and Mary. I hope you will find this site and the information we are gathering as exciting as I do.

When I first wrote the above, I was mostly doing the research for this site on my own, and primarily on the German roots and myths. Along the way, the UM Research Team developed. Take a look at the link to see who they are.

It has recently come to my attention that, to my great dismay, someone with whom I foolishly shared data YEARS AGO submitted my information, without my knowledge or permission, to the LDS and it is now available on one of their CDs. For the most part, the information is old and outdated and it contains many errors, although very little, if any, information on living inividuals outside of my own immediate family. Occasionally, as a result of this material being available on the LDS CD, someone will publish pieces of it on their website and it has become an ongoing project to search it out and ask those people to remove it. What's most astounding about this abominable practice is that neither the person who give my material to the LDS nor the one person I've found so far who put it on his webpage is even an UM descendant!!!

This should well explain why I will never give out the complete Umstead Family Master Tree to ANYONE ever. It is extremely embarrassing to know that this has happened after all my efforts to maintain the privacy of our UM cousins and all the promises I've made to that effect.

last updated 30 May 2002
© Cris Hueneke 2000