The German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley eventually became known as Hebron. No one seems to know when this name came into existence, but throughout the eighteenth century it was NOT Hebron. Some English people referred to it as the " Dutch " church.
The earliest baptisms, of which there are records, start in 1750. The standard number of sponsors was four, but many times only three are shown. There may have been more at one time, but some names may have been omitted. I have explained already that, in about 95% of the cases, the sponsors are known relatives. The other 5% may be our ignorance.
Many people are surprised to learn that the baptismal register that we have today was first written in 1775. Thus, even this is not as original as one might think. The conclusion that it was written in 1775 can be told by the internal evidence, even from the Smith translation (the mark of a good translation is that it preserves the information in the original). Again, this is an example of implicit evidence that takes a little study to ferret out. The November issue of Beyond Germanna was devoted almost entirely to the development of the arguments which are conclusive.
In doing the rewriting, the church fathers decided to leave out the records of people who had left the community. They (people who had left the community) and their children are not shown. If they had appeared as sponsors for previous baptisms, they were omitted. The only names in the rewritten register of 1775 are the people who were still living in the community, in 1775.
Without this little bit of knowledge, you might draw incorrect conclusions about your ancestors. You might conclude that the Holts, for example, never went to the Lutheran Church. This is an erroneous conclusion, but so is the conclusion that they went to the church. We simply do not know.
If you count the number of baptisms per year from 1750 to 1775, the number is quite low compared to the period 1775 to 1778. This, in itself, requires some explanation, as Klug and Schwarbach, the ministers during the first period, were energetic. Perhaps they did not match the energy of Franck, the minister during the '75 to '78 period, but certainly something more is needed to account for the eleven to one ratio, for the number of baptisms per year. In view of the rewriting of the register, which occurred in 1775, it is possible to explain some of the difference. I will go into this case of the Missing Baptisms in the next note.
[The next notes may be subject to some minor delays, as the doctor told me today that I have the shingles. If I feel no worse than I have today, all will be ok.]
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.