June 15, 2010 12:00 am — posted by Charleen #

Today is a big anniversary for us: the first Mullenwegs arrived in Texas 158 years ago! Johann and Hanne Mühlenweg stepped off the Bark Franziska with their young son, Carl Ludwig, and started a journey that is still going strong 5 generations later.
I often wonder what they must have thought as they were pulling into Galveston Bay, and seeing that busy port spreading out in front of them. What plans did they have? What hopes for the future? These are answers that we will likely never find, but I like looking at how far they've come, and wondering if they could have imagined all of this?
About ten years ago, I started off with part of a tree on my Mother's side, and a handful of names on my Father's side (all told, about 300 individuals) and took them to my brother. He built this beautiful site that you're on now, which has really allowed our tree to grow. I could never have imagined that we would grow to about 2,275 people on the Mullenweg/Billingslea side of the tree and 1,400 on the Hageney/Hill side. It's quite obvious that I haven't kept that growth up on the site, so I've gone back and started updating existing folks and adding new ones. If you've sent me (Charleen) or Matt information on an individual, or with a query on the same, please don't hesitate to send me a reminder. I'm getting there. It's going to be a while before I catch this whole site up with that rate of growth, so if you need some information immediately, it is best to email me for it.
Thank you for continuing on this journey with us - I can't wait to see what we find out before we hit our 160th year!

Yours,
Charleen Mullenweg
charleen(at)mullenweg(dot)com

March 22, 2010 9:51 pm — posted by Charleen #

Hi there - I have a lot of new news items to catch up on! I know I haven't posted here in forever, and I'll hope that you forgive my lack of communication, but these last few years (yes, years!) have been BUSY...
1. I'm going to graduate in a few months, so don't be surprised if activity really kicks up then.
2. Thank you's should really go out to Matt for fixing all my access issues again, both here and with the Mullenweg email. He really pulled me up by my bootstraps!
3. I've really been enjoying the Ancestry.com show, Who Do you Think You Are?, on NBC and that's gotten me to look at the tree in new and different ways.
4. The show has really drummed up interest in other ways, and the inquiries on this site have picked up from a steady one query every week (or so) to two to three queries every week. Please be patient with me! I'm slow to answer because I want to research your question, and I'm slow to research because I'm trying to keep my grades high. I know some of these queries are going back for years, I'm going to start systematically answering them. Please be aware, though, that someone is reading all of them and I'm just lacking the time to give them the time that they deserve. That will change soon.
5. Speaking of changes - we are aware that there are issues with some of the links within the site are acting up. Matt has been fixing them as they come up, and I am trying to learn to fix them. If you see one, please send an email to charleen(at)mullenweg(dot)com and I will handle it as soon as I can. Matt life is really hopping right now, and I don't want to load anything on his plate. Calling me is also acceptable, but I am just starting a new job, so I probably will not be answering my phone. Just leave a voice mail, and I'll get to work on the glitch as fast as I can.
6. Photos - Some of these scans are really starting to degrade, so I'm going to be working on getting new copies of the photos for the site. If you have photos that you think would be relevant, please send them in, or send me a link. If you've given me photos before, I'll probably be calling you in August or September about rescanning them.
7. More photos and documents news - I'm going to playing with this site a good deal to try and figure out adding documents and headstone photos. I've been traveling all over the state gathering headstone shots, and all over the archives gathering records, and I want to share them with you. Please remember that some of these photos are being used with their owner's permissions, so ask before you redistribute.
Thank you so much for all of you time and patience through all of this. I'm sure we all will be gearing up for the release of the 1940 census in 2012, as well as all the records that are being scanned in. I think we're going to have a great time!
Yours,
Charleen

June 30, 2006 12:00 am — posted by Charleen #

Well, folks, the site is working again, but we've got to work on some behind the scenes changes, so it's going to evolve slowly over the next few months.
In the meantime, please check out the new and improved gallery. Matt fixed it so that it wouldn't take forever to load anymore, and it looks gorgeous.
That's not nearly all the news, but that's all I'm going to type right now, since I'm really tired. Enjoy the new and improved site, and I hope it helps you in any research that you might have.
Yours, Charleen