John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 231

[With the special activities this week, there will be no more "notes" until next week.]

In the Second Germanna Colony, there were three brothers and one sister, named Blankenbaker, who came as adult members of the group.  Actually, this does not exhaust all of the members of this family, as there were also parents and half-siblings.  First I will take the remaining brother, after his siblings Balthasar Blankenbaker, Matthias Blankenbaker, and Anna Maria Blankenbaker, who have been mentioned here.  This was Hans Niclas Blanckenbühler, born 2 Jan 1682, as recorded in the church records for Neuenbürg, then a part of the lands belonging to the bishops of Speyer.  Hans Niclas' (Johann Nicholas) parents were Johann Thomas Blanckenbühler and Anna Barbara Schön.

  1. 1. Johann Nicholas Blanckenbühler married Apollonia Käffer in Neuenbürg on 6 May 1714.  Apollonia's brother, Michael Kaifer, came to Virginia with the Second Colony and was to marry Anna Maria Blankenbaker (who married a Thomas as her 2nd husband, after Michael's death).  Thus the children of Michael Kaifer and of John Nicholas Blankenbaker were double first cousins.  The children of John Nicholas and Apollonia were:

    1. Maria Barbara Blanckenbühler, b. 22 Dec 1714, d. 23 Dec 1714,
    2. Zacharias Blanckenbühler, b. 21 Oct 1715.

    The two above birth events were in Neuenbürg (a small village, now in Baden).   Later in Virginia, more children were born (order of birth of these is unknown):

    1. Michael Blankenbeker, m. Elizabeth Barbara Garr,
    2. Jacob Blankenbeker, m.1, Mary Barbara Thomas, m.2, Hannah Weaver,
    3. Dorothea, m. Lawrence Garr,
    4. Ursula, m. John Zimmerman,
    5. Elizabeth, m. John Fleshman.

    The will of John (Johann) Nicholas was written 10 August 1743, with a codicil on the next day (probated in September).  His wife Apollonia was still living, who would certainly appear to be his only wife.  He appointed Zacharias, his son, and Jacob Broyles to serve as executors.  He called Jacob his dear friend without noting that Jacob was his brother-in-law.

    Reports that Jacob (#5) was married three times, seem ill founded and without any evidence.  On the contrary, the only evidence was a misreading of a will.  Ursula was reported to have married a John Broyles but it is now known that this was not true.  ( Please return to the BROYLES/ BRILES Family History home page for a discussion of the erroneous assumption that "Ursula BLANKENBAKER" was a wife of John BROYLES, and of the fallacy of a "second" John BROYLES. )

    Descendants of John (Johann) Nicholas have spelled the surname in several ways, with Blankenbeker, Blankenbecler, and Blankenbeckler being some of the choices (there were others also).

( German research on the Blanckenbühler family was done by Margaret James Squires. )

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.