Continuing with the Second Germanna Colony family of Michael Cook, some information was given in the last note about his son, George. One reason for starting with George is that the Hebron Register and the estate settlement for George (see Madison County Deed Book for 1805) specify his children, though uncertainties remain. References to other Cooks in the Hebron Register must be references to the children of Adam, if not to the sons George and Adam themselves. (Of course, the next generation could be appearing also.)
Land deeds and the Hebron references establish that Michael Cook had four children, two girls, Dorothy and Margaret, who were older than the two sons, Adam and George. On 1 Aug 1751, Michael Cook gave 100 acres each to Philip Snyder and to John Carpenter, Jr. On 21 Jul 1757, he gave 112 acres to Adam and George. This later date for the son's land is the reason for thinking that the sons were younger than the daughters. The distribution of land was typically German, with both daughters and sons receiving assets. Also, a distribution before death is not unusual.
When the final estate of George Cook, one of the sons of Michael, was divided, there were thirteen heirs who sold smaller pieces of land. Each of the heirs had a set of witnesses to the act. As a consequence, some information can be learned from the names of witnesses. For example, there were two John Blankenbakers in the community at the time. Mary Barbara Cook, the eldest daughter of George Cook, married one of them, but which one? Since the husbands signed for the couples in the estate sale, a John Blankenbaker appeared, and he asked some other Blankenbakers to be his witnesses. The logical persons to ask would be his brothers. Therefore we conclude that this John Blankenbaker was the one who was the son of Zacharias.
In a similar way, Jemina Cook had three witnesses, all different from the other witnesses. Her relationship might be as an unmarried daughter of George, or it might be as a daughter-in-law. Her witnesses were three Garr men. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Jemina was a Garr who had married a son of George who died after his father died and before the estate was settled; however, I have not researched this question in depth. (If I could find my copy of the estate settlement, I might look into this more as I now have a copy of the Garr Genealogy.)
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.