The research begins

I have been doing a bunch of genealogy research lately and heard a great tip (www.genealogyguys.com) about keeping some research notes. After about 2 seconds of consideration and realizing that most of my notes are scattered all over the place - i decided to put them where I stand a chance of finding them in the future.
Lately, I have been doing all sorts of research on the Sommerfelt line. The basics are that my great-grandmother was born Emma Sommerfelt, in the US. However, her parents were born "somewhere in Southern Russia" - which we believe that we have now identified as Bessarabia. Jacob and Wilhelmina (Minnie) were Germans that were born and raised in Russia. They were married there and had one child. In 1898, they immigrated to the United States and came through Ellis island. Upon arrival, we believe that they made a beeline for North Dakota, to a German settlement there. We have several U.S. census documents that show them there. In fact, according to this link: Jakob Sommerfelt Naturalization we show that Jacob, formerly known as Jakob, was naturalized. and according to BLM records he received a patent for 160 acres in North Dakota, in 1911.
According to the family stories, in about 1917-18 Jacob got very sick and so they moved to Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas. Unfortunately, we don't really know if that prolonged his life at all. It is recorded that he died in 1919, though I have found him in the 1920 census. During this time, it was very difficult for them to pay for their children and try to maintain Jacob - so the children that came with them were farmed out to other families in the community as hired help. In the 1920 and 1930 census', several of the children are found with other families. this seems to be verification of this portion of the family tales.
In my quest to understand what happened to them and where they might have ended up and been buried, I have traveled an interesting road. As I have delved back into my family history, I set out with the quest to discover where Jacob might be buried. We have a death record for Minnie, but nothing for Jacob. Truth be told, we were only looking for Jacob. In the end, I have discovered so much more (but I still haven't definitively found where Jacob might be buried).
my search started by looking on the internet to see if there were any clues that I might be able to use to head me down the right path. Searching in Google and other sources led me to find the BLM record that I mentioned above. They also led me, several times, to family trees located on www.ancestry.com - so I signed up for a free 15 day trial. in the end, the information that that provided was verification from the census records - as to where the family was at with each decade.
After exhausting myself in all the searches that I could think of - including the Texas Death Index, where he does not show up. I determined to try to cut to the source. I started with the the Texas Department of Vital Statistics. They were not able to come up with anything for me, regarding Jacob, but they did confirm that Minnie died in 1947. From there, they suggested that I try calling the Wichita Falls County Clerk's office. When I called, I spoke with a very nice lady that informed me that she could not find anything regarding Jacob either, but she did find Minnie. The information that she gave me is as follows: Minnie Sommerfelt died on 3 Feb. 1947, of acute heart failure and was suffering from bouts of senility for several months prior to her death. Her address, when she died, was 1310 35th Street, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas. The person that handled her funeral arrangements and such was Rudolph Sommerfelt - which I am fairly certain was her son. The last piece that she gave me was the really incredible piece... She said that Minnie was buried at Bowman cemetery.
From that instant on, I started researching Bowman cemetery, to try to discover anything about it. It is located right near the border of Archer and Wichita counties, in Texas - on the Archer side. I found a registry of the headstones located in that cemetery and eagerly looked for at least her name and really hoping that I might also find Jacob buried at the same place. No such luck. I did find, however; an email address of the person that did the walk through and promptly emailed her.
She responded pretty quickly, I'd guess that is was less than an hour after I sent the email. In my email I asked if she had any pictures any of the headstones that she was not able to read - unfortunately she did not. She had some further questions though, to try and help me with my research. So we emailed back and forth a little bit to see if we could find a crack in the brick wall that I was/am facing. She informed me that there is an Archer Co. cemetery book by Mr. & Mrs. O.V. Hampton, published in 1970, that listed a headstone that had Sommerfelt - but that the first name was unreadable. This stone does not seem to be there any longer, but it was supposedly located two plots away from a Travis, W.L. and right next to a Walbrick who's first name was also unreadable. From there her suggestion was that I call Crestview Memorial in Wichita Falls, to see if they had any records for Bowman Cemetery that might give a more definitive answer.
I then called Crestview and spoke to one of their Family Counselors and he was kind enough to volunteer to do this look up for me. Unfortunately, he called back a couple of hours later and reported that they had never handled a funeral for any Sommerfelt's - let alone the ones that I was looking for. I asked if he had access to any other Bowman records and he said that he didn't immediately, but that he would look into it for me. So I waited a few days before calling back. This all leads us to today - which is a story that I will tell tomorrow.