Another family who appeared on Spotswood's importation list was Henry and Dorothy Snyder. Not having any children with them, one might be tempted to think that they were a young family who did not yet have children (such as Michael and Mary Cook). Actually Henry was fifty years old at the time. The Snyder family was already grown.
There was only one daughter, Anna Magdalena Schneider, who was born in 1692 at Botenheim. She married in 1712, at Botenheim, Hans Jacob Öhler. When Hans Heinrich and Anna Dorothea Schneider decided to go to Pennsylvania, Dorothea and Jacob Öhler chose to remain in Germany. This was a reversal of the usual pattern where one or more of the children decide to emigrate while the parents remain. We wish that we knew whether there was any agreement between the parents and Magdalena about the future.
Botenheim is about nine miles southwest of Heilbronn and about six miles south of Schwaigern. Schwaigern was about four miles east of Gemmingen. It, Botenheim, is also about seven miles east of Zaberfeld. These are villages that have already been mentioned. Several people came from these villages. The spread, geographically, is not extensive.
Botenheim is the classical one church village in the midst of similar villages. One village, Brackenheim, is a little larger. Dorothea's grandfather was born at Brackenheim and she was born at Cleebronn. However, the different names should not imply that these locations were at some distance. They were literally next door.
Hans Jacob Öhler was born at Botenheim, the same village where he married Anna Magdalena Schneider. Four known children were born to them there. For one, no further information is known. Another died as a very young child. Two later ones, born in 1718 and 1720, after her parents had emigrated, were Georg Heinrich and Elizabeth Catharina. Henry has a record in Virginia where he married Margaret Käfer (Kaifer), and Elizabeth married Christopher Tanner. Anna Magdalena married John Harnsberger, as his second wife. But there is a dearth of records for Jacob Aylor even to the extent, I believe, that his presence in Virginia is in doubt. (Comments on this point would be welcome.) The children stop after Elizabeth, in 1720, who had been the fourth in eight years.
We do not know the motivations, beyond what could be a desire to reunite the family, for the Aylors to come to Virginia. It could be that Jacob Aylor died in Germany and Anna Magdalena came with the children to live with her parents. (Please note the speculative nature of these comments.)
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.