The Orange Co., VA tithe list for 1739 follows closely to the sequence expected from the land ownership. When the list comes to the land that should be John and Michael Thomas, these are not the names given. John Thomas had other land by then, so his absence at this point is explained. But, Michael Thomas should have been a tithable (sixteen and over) by 1739.
Possibly, he was born about 1720 (it could not have been much different from this). He is not in the home of his stepfather, Michael Kaifer, who has only one tithe. On what should be the Thomas land, there is a tithe, Conrat Pater, who is a total unknown. If one were looking for the man in Germany, the village of the Thomases and the Blankenbakers would be the logical place. For the moment he is an unexplained person.
The list continues in an orderly way to David Ouell, John Kynes, and Christopher Ouell. The Ouell name is better known as Yowell. The name of John Kynes here, and in other contexts, suggests that he was often found with Germans without being clearly labeled as a German. His origins are not clear and the knowledge of the community as a whole will have a gap until his role is better understood. I do not believe that I have encountered anyone who claimed him as an ancestor.
Two names after John Zimmerman is John Sutton. In later land patents, by Zimmerman, he mentions the lands of John Sutton, but I have never been able to find a description of his land by patent or grant.
Over to the northeast, almost on the line of the future Culpeper and Madison Counties, settlement is beginning to occur with John Vaught, Christian Kleman, Jacob Manspiel. John Paul Vaught (or Vogt) has to suffer another mangling of his name as John Full. But there have been worse manglings of his name than this. Once, it is given as Finkt. What this points out is the danger of reading lists too quickly, or of using indices to find names. Some names are really mangled, and it becomes necessary to depend on other clues to make sure that a positive identification has been made.
A.C. Goodwin sent me a note that she believes the name Crowder is really intended to be Sauder, or Sauter, or similar (see the previous note). There should have been a Henry Sauder by 1739, since he is mentioned in earlier documents. The location in the list is approximately correct.
Names not found in the 1739 list include Barlow. Christopher Barlow was in the 1737 list as Parter , but not in the 1739 list. The Aylor name is missing also from the 1739 list. Matthew Kerchler proved his importation in Orange County in 1736. Paul Lederer came in 1733, and was in Orange Co. by 1735. Jacob Miller had a grant in 1733 adjoining Adam Yager. Martin Walk came in 1728 and had a joint grant with Tobias Willheit in 1736, but neither shows in the 1739 list. Some of these may be explained by their living outside the area covered by the surviving lists, which do not cover the entire county.
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.