The last note closed with a puzzle which was, "Who was Henry Coller?" The name appeared in the will of Michael Kaifer when he named a step-son-in-law, Hannry Coller. The spelling for Henry should have been a tip that Coller might not be the exact spelling. People spent a lot of time trying to find the Coller family, but they didn't seem to have lived in Culpeper County at the time of the will, in the mid-eighteenth century.
Michael Kaifer had five daughters and two stepdaughters. Six of them married Germans and the seventh, Margaret, married Henry Coller. The chances are that Henry was a German also.
After a neat piece of sleuthing by Nancy Dodge, Cindy Crigler, and Jeff Aylor, Henry's identity has been discovered. Henry Aylor, at one time, sold land, which he described as his wife's fortune, which had been transferred from John Thomas. Earlier, John Thomas had transferred land to Henry Aylett. John Thomas had a sister, Ann Margaret. John Thomas, in lieu of his father, who had died earlier, acted as the head of the family. Putting it all together, along with some other evidence, the wife of Henry Aylor was (Anna) Margaret Thomas. Previously, Margaret had been described as a daughter of Jacob Crigler, but there was no evidence that this was the case.
In the last note, a number of spellings were given for Aylor. To this list must be added Aylett and Coller. This is what makes researching German ancestry research fun, and FRUSTRATING.
I was asked if the names Dorscheimer, Tushimer, Tishtimer, Dustheimer, and Dusthammer could be the same name. Yes, they are. They are just minor variations in the spelling of the basic name, Dorscheimer. At the German-English interface, where a German gives his name to an English person, the letters "D" and "T" are often interchanged. The spelling "shimer" is an English simplification of "scheimer", and sounds are much the same. I would hardly regard these names as misspellings of the name; they are just valid variations. Therefore, one who engages in German ancestor research must become aware of some basic German phonetics. Using these rules, one gets variations of spelling.
The different ways of spelling the name Aylor go beyond normal variations in spelling. The ones that I have quoted are absolute misspellings for which there are hardly any rules to inform us of the possibilities. We must be on guard for these.
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.