A question was asked concerning a possible Daniel Huffman who had a son Jesse. Daniel is said to have been born in 1742, and Jesse in 1765. Looking at some of the people who might have been the parents of Daniel, we have first John Huffman, the 1714 immigrant.
John very carefully wrote the names of his children in his Bible, and they range from the early 1720’s to 1751. There is no Daniel among his children.
John’s brother, Henry, came to Virginia in 1743, which is specifically documented in a letter Henry wrote back to Eisern. Some people say he had a son Daniel, but he could not have been born in 1742, since Henry was not here yet. Henry did have three daughters who were born in Germany, and recorded in the church books, but he had no sons born there. Furthermore, as the recent analysis has shown, it is doubtful that Henry had a son Daniel.
The immigrant John had two grandsons named Daniel, but they were much younger than a possible 1742 Daniel. Among the Robinson River Huffmans, it is very doubtful (impossible, in light of our knowledge) that there was a Daniel who was born in 1742.
However, Culpeper County included much more than the Robinson River Valley. In the Little Fork, we have Henry Huffman who came in 1734. He is reasonably well documented and his will does not mention a Daniel or Jesse. At other times, there have been Huffmans outside of those that are enumerated here, but they seem to be later, or without a permanent presence.
A secondary location to look would be the Shenandoah Valley. People moved back and forth, and seemed to be in contact with those on the "other side".
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Not too long ago, the Redmans were discussed here. I said there were mentions in the communicants lists, but nothing more. I must admit that I just observed today that Jacob Redman was a sponsor when a child of John Jacob Kneissle and his wife, Margaret, had their son, Jacob, baptized 24 Aug. 1777. The other sponsor was Elizabeth Smith, and she might be hard to classify, for three of the sons of John Michael Smith, Jr., married Elizabeths. The other aspect of this baptism that intrigued me was the name Kenissle which sent me to look up the names by which Conrad Kinslow (the modern spelling) was recorded in the church register. The names for him that appear there include Kunzle, Künzle, and Genssle. By merging all three of these together, I could imagine they spell Kenissle. Conrad Kinslow married Rachel Barlow, and her uncle was John Smith, who married Elizabeth Unknown. John Smith was a sponsor for a child of Conrad Kinslow and Rachel Barlow. All of this makes me wonder if John Jacob Kneissle was not related to Conrad Kinslow. John Jacob Kneissle was perhaps drawing upon the relatives of Conrad Kinslow when he needed a sponsor. I would love to hear from people on this question.
(29 Jan 01)
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.