User:Galstuk

Background
I'm a retired United States Air Force officer currently working as a software engineer. I was born in Glens Falls, New York, however, I currently reside in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and regard Hastings, Nebraska as my home. My parents moved from Glens Falls to Hastings in September of 1966, looking for that greener grass, I imagine.

I graduated from Hastings High School in 1974. I attended Hastings College for a semester and then Brigham Young University for a semester prior to embarking on a mission for the LDS church in the Netherlands. Upon my return from the Netherlands, I attended Wayne State College and then embarked on a career in the US Air Force beginning in January of 1978.

I served as an enlisted member for about 5 years working as an Airborne Cryptologic Slavic Linugist. I was dual qualified in the Russian, German, Dutch and French languages. I left the service in 1982 to finish up a Bachelor's degree in Political Science with a minor in International Relations at the University of Utah, via the AF ROTC program; graduating in June, 1984. I returned to the Air Force as a commissioned officer in the fall of 1984 and served as a Ground Launch Cruise Missile (GLCM) Launch Officer for three years in the United Kingdom and then as a Computer Systems Analysis Officer at both HQ Strategic Air Command and Mountain Home AFB until my retirement in 1996. I obtained a Master of Science degree in International Relations from Troy University while on active duty.

Since my retirement from the Air Force I've worked as a software engineer at a Life Insurance company, as a consultant for IBM, as a software engineer for an IBM Business Partner; HLS Technologies, Inc., as a contract software engineer for Genova Technologies, Inc. I am currently working as a senior software engineer for Vangent, Inc. I'm also pursuing a Master of Computer Science in Software Engineering degree from the University of Iowa.

Add to all of this the fact that I'm responsible for my extended family's Family History. I have to give the lion's share of the credit for all of the documents, pictures, memorabilia and such to my parents; David Ellerson Baker, Sr. and Violetta Beverly Glosser Baker Rogers. Since 1961, when my parents joined the LDS Church, they've gathered, researched, compiled and submitted vast quantities of, well, everything one can imagine on my extended family. My father passed away in 1997 and my mother in 2010. The mantle of record keeper has now fallen on my shoulders. I'm now Patriarch (record keeper) over the descendants of Alberti Baker, my Great-Grandfather. I am the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son. You get the idea. I feel a much closer bond with the likes of Moses, Lehi, Nephi, etc. given their need to keep their family's records in tact and available to their ever-extending families.

I'm also responsible for much of the Family History on the both my Mother's side of the family (Gregory and Streeter families) and for my wife's family (Nibel, Weeks and Wilson families). I take this responsibility extremely seriously and look forward to sharing as much as I can via this Wiki as well as contributing as much as I can via the work of indexing which I thoroughly enjoy.

Interests
I'm currently engaged in research on the following family lines:   Baker Family   Glens Falls, New York   Schoharie, New York     Brownes of Pulaski, New York   Coles of Schoharie, New York   Ellersons (Ellarsons) of Schoharie, New York   Fishers of Grand Junction, Iowa </li>  Glossers of Buffalo, New York </li>  Gregory's of Glens Falls, New York </li>  Mathewsons of Pulaski, New York </li>  Nibels of Paton, Iowa </li>  Streeters of New York State </li>  Vroomans of Schoharie, New York </li>  Weeks Family   Delaware, Ohio </li>  Paton, Iowa </li>  Saratoga Springs, New York </li>  Union Junction, Iowa </li> </ul> </li>  Wilsons of Pocahontas, Iowa </li> </ul> That oughta do it for now...

Experience
I've been working on my own family history for more than forty years. I began work on my wife's family history about 10 years ago. I currently volunteer as a Family History Consultant, Indexer and Extraction Worker for the LDS Church.