Shortly after I had published the note which said that Henry Wayman had two wives, Reba Poster saw a copy and sent me an extract from the book entitled " Some Martin, Jefferies, and Wayman Families, and Connections of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Indiana ." On page 139, in writing about Henry Wayman, who was obviously the same Henry Wayman that I have been discussing, the book says, "Henry Wayman, b., d. , m.1) -----; m.2) before 1776 (according to a descendant) Mary Magdalena Finks."
I thought this was good support for the two marriage concept for Henry Wayman. A literal interpretation is that the second wife was Mary Magdalena Finks. However, I proposed that both of his wives were named Mary Magdalena. Under these conditions it is not surprising that the source of the information confused the first and second wives.
This Mary Magdalena Finks was the daughter of Elizabeth (Alcy), and was a stepdaughter of Zacharias Blankenbaker. The married name of this Elizabeth was Finks. Her maiden name is unknown. The man that she married was probably the second tithe in the 1739 Orange County tithe list with Mark Finks. From the inferred age he was probably a younger brother of Mark, Sr.
The information that I cite in the first paragraph is hardly better than a rumor. The important point is that I had decided that Henry Wayman was married twice before I came across that information. My decision was based on good evidence, even though it was a bit extreme. Having made this decision, to find a family tradition that supported it only encouraged me to believe that I was correct.
When Zacharias wrote his will, he named only Elizabeth as a daughter of his wife. Elizabeth married Peter Broyles. Alcy's daughter Mary Magdalena had died by then and Zacharias did not mention her. It was this Mary Magdalena that was the first wife of Henry Wayman. After she died, Henry married Mary Magdalena Blankenbaker, the daughter of John. As often happens, this was another case of "keeping it in the family." The time at which the switch between the two wives occurred is not certain so some of the children of Henry have an indeterminate mother.
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.