John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 594

In the last note, I gave the baptisms in which John Gaar was a parent and we looked at his choice of sponsors.  This note looks at the baptisms where John Gaar was chosen as a sponsor.

1. Michael Zimmerman (who was a Carpenter), and his wife Mary Crisler, for their son, Solomon (born 20 Nov 1761), chose John Gaar (her cousin), Henry Crisler (her brother), Mary Carpenter (his sister-in-law, who was the w/o Wm., Sr.), and Elizabeth Fisher (her cousin, the w/o Adam).
2. Again, Michael and Mary, for their son, Moses (b. 5 Nov 1775), chose Wm. Carpenter (his brother), John Gaar (her cousin), Elizabeth Fisher (her cousin), and Elizabeth Crisler (her sister-in-law, who had married Henry).
3. Nicholas Yager and his wife Susanna (Willheit), for their daughter, Rosina (b. 9 Oct 1778), chose John and Margaret Gaar (her brother-in-law and sister), and Eva Boehm.  For Eva, I not ready and/or able to make any statement.
4. John Wayland, Jr. and his wife, Rosina (Willheit), sometimes called Rosanna, chose for their son, William (b. 20 Jun 1783), Joshua and Rachel Utz Wayland (his brother and sister-in-law), and John Gaar (her brother-in-law).

Fourteen choices were made.  Five were related by marriage, not by blood.  Four were siblings.  Four were blood cousins.  One is an unknown.  All were of the same generation as the parents.

Andrew Gaar, John Gaar's brother, had one child baptized, Simon (b. 26 Apr 1777).  Andrew's wife was Christina Willheit.  Their choices of sponsors were Bernard Fisher (her brother-in-law), Eva Fisher (Bernard's wife and her sister), John Wayland, Jr. (her brother-in-law), and Mary Willheit (her sister-in-law, the wife of Nicholas).  To classify them, one choice was related by blood and three were related by marriage.  John Gaar, his brother, and Margaret (Willheit) Gaar, her sister, were not chosen.

Andrew Gaar was chosen by Bernard Fisher and his wife.  Andrew was the brother-in-law of Bernard's wife, Eve Willheit, who was Christina Gaar's sister.  Andrew Gaar was chosen by John Blankenbaker and his wife, Barbara Cook.  Andrew was John's cousin.  Twice, Daniel Willheit and his wife Mary Blankenbaker chose Andrew Gaar.  Daniel and Andrew were brothers-in-law, as Daniel was Christina's brother.

Though the details are not given here, eight of the sponsors, when Andrew Gaar was involved, were related by marriage out of the total of eighteen choices.  Only seven of the choices were siblings of the parents.  But all of them were of the same generation as the parents.

The choices of sponsors which I have been illustrating here recently are very typical of the sponsorship patterns at large.  There are exceptions, few in number, to the patterns I have been showing.