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Meet Our Staff!
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Andrew Blattner and Steven Pledger participating in a living history event
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 Steven Pledger, Director
A sixth generation Cape Girardeau County resident, Steven Pledger has the distinction of not only being the Director of the Archive Center, but also the President of the Allen Laws Oliver Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Pledger also enjoys membership in the Richard J. Oglesby Camp #61 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Formerly a professional photographer specializing in old photo reproduction, Mr. Pledger is a genealogist at heart. Not only has he spent the last 20 years researching his family, but can even claim Martha Washington as a first cousin seven times removed. He is also a descendant of Christian Jager-Yaeger 1840-1914 (pictured on right) who served in Company A, 56th EMM in the Civil War. Mr. Pledger 's surname research spreads from Southern Missouri throughout the lower forty-eight states. His surname list includes: Pledger, Oehlert, Higgason, Hemmann, McGraw, Harris, Jager/Yaeger, Kutscher, Wyatt, Bush, Avery, Reese, Krause, Woeltje, and Streit.
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 Andrew Blattner, Assistant Director 
A ninth generation Cape Girardeau County resident, Andrew “Drew” David Blattner is an avid genealogist who believes he was born at least two hundred years too late. Mr. Blattner’s earliest ancestors to come to the Cape Girardeau District of the Upper Louisiana Territory of the Kingdom of Spain were hearty frontiersman and Revolutionary War veterans who started arriving here in the 1790’s. More followed in the early 1800s and peaked with the vast majority of his ancestors being German Lutherans and to a lesser extent German Evangelicals who immigrated directly here in the mid to late 1800s. Mr. Blattner enjoys reenacting in early American living history events and believes it helps him connect with his ancestors of long ago. He frequently visits the graves, churches and family farms of his ancestors and finds them to be sacred places to visit. His Cape Girardeau County surnames include: Blattner, Dubs, Wehrli, Keller, Bender, Weiss, Bergmann, Kies, Knaus, Maier/Mayer/Mayr, Umbeck, Baumer, Haeger/Hager, Brunke, Schlue, Siemers, Greten, Grossheider, Sewing, Probst, Voges, Vasterling, Bartles, Lohkamp, Han, Philipps, Sander, Lange, Meier/Meyer, Schweiger, Lowes, Vornkahl/Fornkahl, Grebe, Heuschober, Lauten/Lauden, Blutz, Van Gilder, Masterson, Randall, Patterson, and Graves. One of Mr. Blattner's ancestors (pictured on right) is James Van Gilder 1825-1912. Notice the family resemblance?
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 Marla Ives, Archival Tech 
Marla Ives immigrated to the Cape Girardeau area in 2000 to attend Southeast Missouri State University. After graduating in 2004 with a B.A. in Anthropology, Marla became interested in her family genealogy. Due to her father’s relatives having already invested years in genealogical research, she has been concentrating on her mother’s side including the surnames: Melchert, Troedel, Martin, and the Untch family all of the Wisconsin area. Having recently returned to school to complete her B.S. in Historic Preservation, she has been avidly trying to research her grandfather’s Native American heritage as he was the last of the family to claim membership in the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of the Ojibwe. Marla has been able to trace her linage to Chief White Crane 1710 - 1771 (pictured on right) of La Pointe, Wisconsin. |
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