In this note, I will outline a situation about which I have wondered for some time. I have never seen any discussion of the questions which are raised. The 1714 immigrants, Hans Jacob and Anna Margaret Holtzclaw, had a son John (who came with them), who was their oldest child. John married a widow, Catherine (Russell) Thomas. Apparently, Catherine had at least one son by her first husband, ? Thomas.
Jacob Holtzclaw was married twice, and the second wife was Catherine ?. Anna Margaret was the mother of the first four of Jacob Holtzclaw's children, and Catherine was the mother of the last three of Jacob's children. In between there are three children, Harmon, Elizabeth and Alice Katherine but it is not clear whether the mother was Anna Margaret or Catherine.
Among Catherine's three known children were two sons, Jacob and Joseph. Jacob and Joseph moved from Fauquier County to the Robinson River Community where they married daughters of John Thomas. This suggests to me that the move from Fauquier to the Robinson River, and the marriage there to the Thomas daughters, was because Jacob and Joseph knew the Robinson River Thomases. The most probable reason that Jacob and Joseph knew the Thomas family was because that family was related to the ? Thomas who was the first husband of Catherine Holtzclaw.
To review a little of what is known of the Robinson River Thomases, John Thomas married Anna Maria Blankenbaker in Germany, where two children were born: John (Jr.) and Anna Magdalena. Later in Virginia two more children were born, Michael and Margaret. John Thomas (Sr.) died shortly after he arrived in America and Anna Maria married, second, Michael Kaifer. Michael Kaifer's will gives us the insight into the Thomas family.
John Thomas, Jr., had two daughters, among other children, and he gave land to their husbands: Joseph and Jacob Holtzclaw which gives us the Holtzclaw-Thomas marriages.
This whole story would be wrapped up very neatly, if John Thomas, Sr., had a brother who became the husband of Catherine Russell. No such brother has yet been found in the German records but not all records are available or have been examined.
If anyone can provide a rational explanation which would explain the situation that I have outlined above, I would be interested in hearing it. Why did Jacob and Joseph Holtzclaw move from Fauquier Co. to the Robinson River community?
Mary Thomas, who married Joseph Holtzclaw, died before any issue is known. Joseph married, secondly, Elizabeth Zimmerman who was related to Mary Thomas, as both have Blankenbaker ancestors. Eventually, both Jacob and Joseph had large families.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.