The last note discussed some errors in the Garr Genealogy, but as a whole the book is much to be admired. Listing 16,000 descendants of Andreas Gar/Gaar/Garr, and some other families, it must be remembered that much of the book was researched in the days of handwritten letters. The postage bill, even at the more economical rates of that day, was probably enormous.
One family that the Garrs scrambled was the Lewis Fisher family. The son, who was the author of the book, writes, "This record is taken from an entry my father made in his book when he was in Virginia about 1849. . . ." I always had the feeling that the information came second hand to the father, as opposed to being original work. Certainly no original records are known which verify the information about the family as the Garrs give it. On the contrary, several original records suggest that the Garr's information for the Lewis Fisher family is in error.
Since the events recorded would have been less than one hundred years old in 1849, one wonders how the errors were generated. Generally, the memory of a person who is not yet senile still extends to some recollection of family events of less than one hundred years.
The errors include the wrong children in the family and the wrong name for one daughter.
The daughter who is called Elizabeth and who married Nicholas Wilhoit actually had the name of Mary Margaret (or vice versa, but most probably in the order given). She was sometimes called Mary and sometimes Margaret at the church (other similar examples are known). The church records are quite clear, with more than one reference, to the wife of Nicholas Wilhoit being Mary Margaret. No reference is ever made to the wife of Nicholas being Elizabeth. From the dates, it is not the case that two wives were involved.
The Garrs said that the daughter Margaret married ___ Watts. From the will of the proven son, Adam, of Lewis Fisher, it is clear that this Margaret was the daughter of Adam. Adam also had a daughter, Ann, who married Frederick Kalfus. The Garrs had given a daughter of Lewis as ___ who married a ___ Kalfus. Thus, two of the children which the Garrs assigned to Lewis, were actually grandchildren of Lewis.
What I suspect happened is that the elder Garr took someone else's word concerning the family of Lewis Fisher and did not check the facts. There is a moral for us here. One should check and recheck the information which one receives. Or quality before quantity.
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.