Descendants of all three of the Blankenbaker men to come in 1717 found their way to East Tennessee, but by much different paths. Matthias, one the three brothers, came with a son George. This George married Mary Gerhard in Virginia. George and Mary were the parents of one child, John, before George died. From the will of Matthias, the suggestion would be that John was the only child. Mary married Michael Moyer, son of the 1717 immigrant, George Moyer (Meyer or Myer). A sister of Mary, Catherine Gerhard, married Martin Walk (Walke, Valck, Vallick). The Gerhard family moved to North Carolina including Michael and Mary Myer.
John Blanketpickler was the stepson of Michael Myers. [After the research in Austria, the spelling as Blanketpickler is not strange; in fact, the name harkens back to some of the original spellings.] John, in the course of time, had his own family, including five sons. All of the sons agreed to simplify the spelling to Pickler. At least one of these sons found his way to Tennessee.
A second path was started by a son of Zacharias, who in turn was the son of the immigrant, John Nicholas Blankenbaker. This son, Zacharias Blankenbeckler, Jr., moved to the southwest corner of Virginia, where he spent the remainder of his life. But, some of his children made a relatively small move and ended in Tennessee. Hallie Price Garner recently recounted some of this story here on the list, showing there were further variations in the spelling.
The descendants of the third Blankenbaker man, Balthasar, were by the female line, one of whom, in particular, was Elizabeth, who married Adam Wayland. We have discussed a Wayland descendant who made it to East Tennessee.
Descendants of the fourth Blankenbaker, Anna Maria Blankenbaker Thomas (and later Käfer), were more inclined to move north and west; however, there is a possibility that a Michael Thomas, who moved to North Carolina, was her grandson. If so, this opens possibilities.
There was a path for yet another Blankenbaker to make it to Tennessee. A great-great-grandson of the immigrant Matthias, one Julius Blankenbeker, moved to Missouri. There, he was the father of John Henry Blankenbeker, who in turn was the father of my father, John Lovell Blankenbaker. John L. moved to Oklahoma, but, as a young man, decided to go to Johnson Bible College in East Tennessee. He did not remain long, but while he was there he was a representative of the following Germanna families: Blankenbaker (thrice), Utz (twice), (Peter) Weaver, (Henry) Huffman, Käfer, Carpenter, Kerker, Christler (twice), Garr (twice), Finks, Fisher, Willheit, and Broyles. I think you could say that East Tennessee and Germanna were no strangers to each other.
(07 Aug 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.