Whom Did Adam Yager Marry?
Adam Yager was the son of Nicholas Yager. Except for the possibility that Adam's sister Mary did live and have heirs, all of the descendants of Nicholas Jäger are through Adam. Adam is said to have married Susannah Kabler, the sister of Frederick Kabler. The last point is quoted very widely by descendants and by historians. However, evidence for this is unknown (to me). Let's examine pro and con points for this purported marriage.
AGAINST: Fred Zimmerman, in his research into the German church records, found the birth record for Frederick (Hans Friedrich) Kappler. but evidence on other family members is extremely poor. It is not clear why this is so. Frederick Kappler called on Christoph Zimmermann to be a sponsor (godfather) for Kappler's son, Christoph. This tie between the Kabler and Zimmerman families continued in Virginia as these were two of the very few families who lived in the Mt. Pony area. Also, both men were coopers. No where in the church records in Germany does Susannah appear. Because the Kabler and Zimmerman families were associated in Germany and later in Virginia, it seems that the right families have been found.
Before looking at one piece of positive evidence, a short digression on Mt. Pony is warranted. When some of the Germans moved to the Robinson River area, a few of them moved to a distinctly different area, the Mt. Pony region. Most historians had failed to recognize there was a geographical difference which was significant. In my own research, I noted the difference and plotted some of the land.
FOR: Adam Yager lived in the Mt. Pony area for more than ten years. He had one hundred acres on the southern slope of Mt. Pony not far from the tract that Frederick Kabler owned. Adam's father, Nicholas, had moved to the Robinson River area. It seems likely that Adam lived in the Mt. Pony area, because his wife would be near to her family. This, in itself, does not make her a Kabler. The people, though, who had been calling Adam's wife a Kabler had not realized that Adam was living apart from his father. They failed to recognize that geography did support them (though it was not proof). Perhaps Susannah was named as a Kabler in handed-down family lore and the source of the information has been lost. In short, the idea that Adam Yager married Susannah Kabler is supported by geography but this is very weak evidence.
It pains me to say that Susannah Kabler was Adam Yager's wife because the evidence is practically nonexistent.
Mt. Pony has been the news recently. During the cold war, the Federal Reserve Board dug out an underground bunker in Mt. Pony as a haven for federal officials in case there was an atomic attack. With the thaw, it has been decided to discontinue the use of it.
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.