Anyone who seriously studies the baptismal sponsorships at the German Lutheran Church cannot help being impressed by the associations. Sponsors were usually chosen from relatives and in-laws, and the in-laws were as good as the relatives. Friendship alone was hardly ever the basis for choosing sponsors. In fact, I would be hard pressed to name cases, but there were a few instances where the parents had no relations in the community. For example, the Rev. Franck and his wife had a baby baptized, but neither of the parents had any relatives who could act as sponsors. They had to choose "friends".
When one studies the Carpenter and Yager families in the third quarter, possibly the fourth quarter also, of the eighteenth century, one must notice the number of times that the Carpenter family members call on the Yager family members to be sponsors, and vice versa. We know of no other families who were relatives to both of these families. We know of no marriages between the Carpenter and Yager families in the first three generations or so.
The head of the YAGER family is Nicholas, who married Anna Maria Sieber, and later Susanna Clore Weaver Crigler. Nicholas has one son, Adam, who is said to have married Susanna Kabler, though solid proof is needed for this, and one daughter, Mary, of whom there is no further record.
Adam had six children:
1) Michael, who married Elizabeth Manspiel,
2) Barbara, who married Peter Clore and then Philip Chelf,
3) John (Blind John), who married Mary Wilhoite,
4) Nicholas, who married Susanna Wilhoite,
5) Adam, who married Juriah Berry, and
6) Godfrey, who married a Klug daughter and then Mary Wayland.
John CARPENTER (he who protested against William Carpenter's will) married Anna Barbara Kerker (we think). His sons were:
1) John, who married Dorothy Cook,
2) Andrew, who married Barbara Weaver and then Anna ?,
3) William, who married Mary Wilhoit, and
4) Michael, who married Mary Crisler.
John Carpenter's will did not mention any daughters, and it is assumed that he had none.
I don't have a list made up just now, but it would be unusual to have either a Carpenter as a sponsor for a Yager baptism, or a Yager as a sponsor for a Carpenter baptism. Yet, we have examples of both. In view of some of the other problems in the Carpenter family, I have wondered if the history of these two families has been assembled correctly.
Did Mary Yager, the daughter of Nicholas, really disappear, or did she live, and maybe married a Carpenter? If Adam Yager did marry a Kabler, did she (Kabler wife) die, and did he remarry? (After all, he sold his land in the vicinity of the Kablers and moved to the Robinson River Valley.) Were there two John Carpenters where we have only one?
As long as questions such as these are present, I am nervous. There are questions that need answers.
(28 Dec 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.