Lynnea Dickinson presented circumstantial evidence that Elizabeth Smith, the wife of John Smith, might have been a Powell. She might be correct. I had suggested that she might be a Böhm. My evidence depended largely on one baptism at the Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison Co., VA.
When Daniel Böhm and his wife Nancy had their daughter, Susanna, baptized in 1777, the three sponsors were John Smith, Jr., Delila Broyles, and Eva Böhm. (If you look this up in the Register for the church, you may not find Eva Böhm. This is because the baptism is recorded twice and, in one of the cases, Eva is not listed.) Eva is Daniel's sister and Delila is Nancy's stepsister. These two sponsors are typical as they are closely related and of the same generation as the parents.
The only reason I can assign for John Smith being a sponsor is that his wife was a sister or a cousin of Daniel or Nancy (? Chelf ?) I was inclined to the view that Elizabeth Smith was a sister of Daniel.
If you wonder why John Smith is listed as a Junior, it would be because his father was John Michael Smith. In the duplicate recording of this baptism, the Junior is omitted.
There are four times that Elizabeth Smith is involved in a baptism at the church. Once was as a parent, in 1777, when she and John brought Elizabeth. The sponsors were Zacharias Smith (John's brother), Barbara Aylor (John's cousin), and Mary Weaver (his "cousin"). None of the sponsors are related to Elizabeth, suggesting she may have come from outside the Hebron community. If she had been a Böhm, she could have asked her brother Daniel. The Powells do not have a presence at the Hebron Lutheran Church (perhaps because they did not speak German). Therefore, this baptism might be considered as supporting Lynnea.
Elizabeth was a sponsor for Michael Delph and his wife Mary Schneider. It is mystery why she was chosen. Also, she and Jacob Redman were sponsors for John Jacob Kneissle and his wife Margaret. I have tentatively assigned Margaret as a Böhm, so this would be a natural sponsorship pattern under my assignment of Elizabeth as a Böhm. Elizabeth and John Smith were sponsors for Conrad Künzle and his wife Rachel. Rachel was a Barlow (her mother was a Smith) and John Smith was her uncle, but of approximately the same age. This is a rational choice.
With all this said, there is a mystery here. Another point for Lynnea's case is that John Smith usually attended church without his wife. Again, this may indicate that Elizabeth didn't understand German.
It would be good to have some discussion of the Kneissle, Redman, and Künzle families. Can anyone comment on them? So that a Web search will pick up this note, the English spelling of the Böhm name is usually Beemon in the civil records, and sometimes Boehm . There was a marriage of Ann Powell and Henry Delph. He was a brother to Michael Delph above.
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.