As we move into the family of Michael Thomas, son of John Thomas and Anna Maria Blankenbaker, we are bordering on fiction. By tradition, Michael is said to the father of twenty-five children by two wives. His will, which emphasizes the second family, was partially burned. So, even though I put some names down in black and white, don't believe that they are solid facts. There is some evidence which will be discussed later.
The first wife of Michael was Catherine. Many people speculate that she was a Wayland, as Thomas Wayland had a daughter of this name, of approximately the correct age, and a good circumstantial case can be built that this was the Catherine who married Michael. The only weakness in the argument is that the same facts can also be used to show that Catherine married other men. So I usually refrain from identifying Catherine as a Wayland. The tradition is that Catherine was the mother of fifteen children. A list of suggested children is:
Henry (said to be the eldest),
Samuel,
Margaret, married Everhard Hupp,
Anna Maria, m.1 Michael DeBolt, m.2 Michael Crisler,
Abraham, m. Susanna Smith,
Michael, m. Elizabeth Bennett,
John,
Jesse,
Lucy,
Elizabeth, m. Anthony Berry, and
#11, #12, #13, #14, #15 (unknowns).
The second wife of Michael Thomas was Eva Susannah Margaret Hart. The names of ten children of this union have been put forward:
George B., m. Lavina Scholl,
Sarah ?,
Israel, m. Catherine Halbert,
Daniel, Mary McQueen,
Solomon, m. ____ Barnhill,
Ann, m. Stephen Bowles,
Barbara,
Elizabeth, perhaps m. Mathias Rafelty, Jr.,
Rachael,and
Eve.
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.