Frederick Baumgartner left a will in which he named a daughter Dorothy, but not a daughter Eve. (There were also four sons: Adam, George, Frederick, and Joel.) After the father Frederick died, the mother, Catherine, married John Deer. There are no clues as to Catherine's maiden name. John Deer left a will and in it he left three pounds each to Dorothy and Eve (given by their married names in 1781). This has resulted in some confusion as to the status of Dorothy and Eve, with respect to John Deer, who did not state the women were his daughters. Dorothy is known, from the will of Frederick Baumgartner, to be Frederick's daughter. Eve gave a disposition once that Dorothy was her sister, and the current belief is that Eve was a daughter of Frederick Baumgartner, but was born after he died.
Six children are named by John Deer, who are believed to be his children: John, Catherine, Susannah, Moses, Mary, and Elizabeth. Mary and Elizabeth were apparently unmarried in 1781, the year in which the will was written. Catherine is named as Catherine Rider, and Susannah is named as Susannah Brown. At present, this is the extent of the knowledge about the four daughters of John Deer.
In the following, reliance is placed on information furnished by Gene Dear, a descendant of Simeon Dear. John Deer married Mary Blankenbaker, the daughter of Christopher Blankenbaker and his wife Christina Finks. Mary was born 29 Sep 1754. The husband of Mary had not been known until Gene Dear found a Supreme Court case in Virginia, which named all of the children and, for the women, their husbands. It seems probable that John Deer, Jr., was the eldest son (and probably child) of John, Sr., and Catherine Deer, and he was born about 1749.
Gene has given me the children of John, Jr., and Mary (Blankenbaker) Deer as follows (I am using numbers to help identify them):
If anyone can add details, please do so.
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.