The name of John Thomas in Virginia was Thoma in Germany. The "h" would not have been sounded so the name when spoken by a German in Virginia would have been Toma. Thus, the land patent to the Thomas sons in Virginia was issued in the name of John and Michael Tomas.
As one of the longer and more complicated names, the name which became Blankenbaker, and other variations, was most often rendered as Blankenbühler in the years just before the emigration to the New World. But there were alternatives. And in Austria, before the sojourn in Germany, there were other variations, especially with an initial "P." I believe that the few people who have the name Blankenbühler in Germany today are probably related. The variations in America are many including Blankenbaker, Blankenbeker (pronounced the same), Blankenbeckler, Blankenbecler, and Pickler. There are also the conversions into Baker, Blank, or Blanken.
The Fleshman name in America was Fleischmann in Germany and means just exactly what the components tell us, namely a butcher or one who works with flesh.
One of the immigrants to Virginia was Henry Schlucter. It appears that he married but whether he left any descendants is uncertain. Assuming that he may have, the spelling here is uncertain. Information about Henry Schlucter is certainly scarce.
The mother of all of the Blankenbakers, Fleshmans, and Henry Schlucter was Anna Barbara Schöne where in some records the final "e" is omitted. When Anna Barbara came to Virginia, she was married to her third husband, Cyriacus Fleshman.
The Weaver family spelled the name in Germany as a weaver there would spell the name of his job, Weber. The conversion from Weber to Weaver preserves the meaning and comes close on the sound but the sound conversion is not really exact.
One of the names which maintained its German spelling in Virginia is Utz. Prof. Holtzclaw had surmised it might be spelled differently (and that the origin might be Nassau-Siegen) but he was wrong on both points. For a brief time, George Utz, the immigrant, apparently used the spelling of Woods which is similar in sound. In the end he kept the spelling Utz.
The name Folg, as in Johann Michael Folg of Wagenbach, who was the father of John Hoffman's second wife, was a misspelling by John Hoffman. The name was uniformly Volck in Germany. Maria Sabina Volck, Hoffman's second wife, was the daughter of Mrs. George Utz and the stepdaughter of George Utz. Apparently Maria Sabina had a sister, Louisa Elizabeth, who also came to Virginia but her eventual fate is unknown. No other Volcks are known to have immigrated.
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.