A question was asked recently concerning the descendants of Anna Barbara Schöne, particularly along the lines of her daughter Anna Maria Blankenbühler, who was born on 5 May 1687. She married Johann Thomas in 1711, and two surviving children were born in Germany, Hans Wendel Thoma (John Thomas) and Anna Magdalena. Two more children were born in Virginia, Michael and Anne Margaret. The dates and sequence of the last two births are unknown.
It is not clear that John and Anna Maria Thoma came with the rest of her family to Virginia in 1717. However, they must have come at an early date because it appears that Michael and Ann Margaret were born in Virginia. The father died and Anna Maria married Michael Käfer, who was the brother of her sister-in-law, Apollonia Blankenbühler, who had married John Nicholas Blankenbühler. Michael was a bachelor without any children when he came. After he married Anna Maria, they had five daughters. If we assume that 43 years would be about the last year that Anna Maria had a child, this would be the year 1730. With five children by Michael Kaifer, and with births every two years, she probably married Michael about 1720, when her youngest children (Michael and Anne Margaret) were still just toddlers.
We are very fortunate in that Michael Käfer left us a detailed will, albeit with some atrocious spelling in it, which gives their children (5) and her children (4) and, in the case of the girls (total of 7), their husbands. We had some difficulty in identifying the husband of Margaret until a couple of years ago when it was shown that she had married Henry Aylor.
The children of John and Anna Maria (Blankenbühler) Thoma were:
John Thomas
Anna Magdalena, m. Michael Smith (Jr.)
Michael Thomas
(Anne) Margaret, m. Henry Aylor
Elizabeth, m. Adam Garr
Dorothy, m. John Clore
Barbara, m. John Weaver
Mary, m. George Utz
Margaret, m. Nicholas Crigler
There were two Margarets in the family, but, from the church records, the wife of Henry Aylor was known there as Anne Margaret. Perhaps the "Anne" was useful to tell them apart.
B. C. Holtzclaw, writing in Germanna Record 6, thought that Michael Käfer came with a family from Germany. This has led to confusion, as some people have then concluded that he was married twice. The headright list of Spotswood shows clearly that he was alone without any family.
(29 Nov 00)
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.