A note from a correspondent, Mr. Thomas S. Rothrock, warns of the dangers of attempting to follow Thomases by name. There are simply too many of them with the same name and one learns very quickly that there is no novelty to the name Thomas. I have been attempting to follow the family of Henry Thomas of Culpeper Co., Virginia by the associations of other names which surround the Thomases. So far, we have encountered Adam Smith in both Culpeper County and as the adjacent signature on the protest petition in Kentucky. Adam and Henry were not only neighbors but they were first cousins.
We'll next consider some second cousins of Henry Thomas. The ancestors that they had in common were John Thomas Blankenbühler and Anna Barbara Schön. The great-grandfather, JTB, never made it to America, as he died in Germany. Anna Barbara married twice again in Germany and eventually came with her third husband, Cyriacus Fleshman. The second cousins of Henry were Stephan and Adam Fisher. Later their brother, Barnett, also came to Kentucky.
Stephan's wife is found in the Culpeper Co., VA, church records in 1777. Stephan is described as going to and from Kentucky for a period of time, but apparently by 1777 he had not relocated his family. Adam Fisher is recorded in Virginia in 1777, the last year he is to be found in the church records there. Barnett, the younger brother of Stephan and Adam, is found in Virginia through 1785, though he too moved to Kentucky.
In 1784, we find that Stephan Fisher had been a party for a preliminary survey of a road in the neighborhood of Henry Thomas. In 1786, we find a road order in Lincoln Co., KY, which mentions these names or places: Stephan Fisher, A. Smith, John Smith, and Henry Thomas' Station . In the same neighborhood, Abraham Thomas, Jesse Thomas, and Michael Thomas were signers of petitions.
Stephan Fisher was the owner of Fisher's Station which was located about two miles southeast of Henry Thomas's Station . Because Fisher's Station was more elaborate and better prepared than most stations in Kentucky, it was sometimes called Fisher's Garrison.
Stephan Fisher, in a later account, said that he visited Kentucky in 1775, returned to Virginia in 1776, came again in 1777, and stayed there a "great deal of time".
What we learn from all of this is that we need to study the community, not individuals. In any frontier setting, records will be hard to find. Evidence often comes circumstantially and, if enough of it can be piled up, it may be very good evidence.
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.