Do you recognize the name Johann Theobald Christele? It has been the source of much confusion in America. As you might guess, the name originated in the Germanic lands, when it was attached to the new son of Leonhard Christler, or Christele, and his lawful wife, Anna Maria Bender. The place was Lambsheim, in the Palatinate, and the date was 18 Aug 1709.
The spelling as Christele gives a clue to where the family might have been found earlier. It is well known in Canton Bern in Switzerland. The ending " le " or " li " is a typical Swiss ending on names. Probably, the family had moved not long before the birth of Theobald, for the Christele family only became citizens of Lambsheim on 1 Mar 1709. They had lived in a nearby village prior to this. Anna Maria Bender’s family was from the village of Lambsheim, where her father, Johannes Bender, was the blacksmith.
In 1719, Johannes Bender, Leonhard Christler, and Christian Merkel, the husband of Johannes Bender’s daughter, Anna Catharina, sold their property in Lambsheim and emigrated to Pennsylvania. The families lived there for a number of years. In the early 1730's, the Theobald Christler family moved to Orange Co., Virginia (becoming later Culpeper and Madison counties). Theobald married Rosina Gaar, whose family also moved at about the same time from Pennsylvania to Virginia.
("Bender", in Germany, became "Painter", in America, usually.)
The family of Theobald and Rosina was quite large, eleven children, and ten of these have marriages to an assortment of Germanna families such as Weaver, Broyles, Carpenter, Smith, Crigler, Wayland, Wilhoit, Clore, Crigler, and Thomas. Looking at the ancestry of some of these marriage partners:
Anna Magdalena Smith (wife of John George Christler) was the daughter of John Michael Smith, Jr., and Anna Magdalena Thomas. Anna Magdalena was the daughter of Anna Maria Blankenbaker.
Mary Ann Thomas (husband of Michael Christler) was the daughter of Michael Thomas, who was the son of Anna Maria Blankenbaker.
Elizabeth Wayland was the daughter of John Wayland and Catherine Broyles. Catherine was the daughter of Jacob Broyles and Mary Catherine Fleshman, whose father was the son of Anna Barbara Schöne.
(That makes three for Anna Barbara’s descendants, since the Blankenbakers are her descendants also. Let’s try for a fourth descendant.)
Catherine Christler married Aaron Crigler, who was the son of Margaret Kaifer, who was the daughter of Anna Maria Blankenbaker, who was the daughter of Anna Barbara Schöne. Now we have four. Are there any more?
I like to do this kind of thing just for the practice of remembering who
married whom.
(11 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.