In the last note, the subject was Els Blankenbaker and the Hoffmans who sat near her at some of the Communion Services at the Hebron Church. I was a bit puzzled by who the Hoffmans might be, but, with the help of Jim Messersmith, and some more study, I have the following tentative identifications, though still not yet complete.
At one service in 1797, Anna and Rosina (or Rosanna) Hoffman were sitting next to each other. Jim has identified these two as sisters, Millers by birth. Elijah Hoffman, s/o William, s/o the immigrant John, married Rosanna, 28 Jan 1796. This was a second marriage for Elijah, but he was still a young man. His uncle, Henry, as his second marriage, married Ann, 15 Dec 1794. Henry, though, already had a sizeable family from his first marriage to Elizabeth Blankenbaker.
The Magdalena Hoffman was probably Magdalena Cook, who married John Hoffman, s/o Nicholas, s/o John. She was born in 1756 (Hebron Church records). John Hoffman is sometimes estimated to have a birth year of 1761, but the odds would be that he was born a few years earlier than this. Magdalena Cook took Communion under her maiden name from 1775 to 1778, but never after this date under the Cook name. Under the name Magdalena Hoffman she took communion from 1783 to 1807. (There were few communion services from 1778 to 1783.) Her parents were George Cook and Mary Sarah Reiner.
The Elizabeth Hoffman was probably Elizabeth Tanner, who married Solomon Hoffman, in 1795. The name Elizabeth Hoffman never occurs before 1795 in the Communion Lists. Solomon was the son of Jacob Hoffman and Barbara Souther. Jacob was the son of John, the immigrant.
The Margaret Hoffman in the lists is more of a problem. I have not come up with a good candidate here.
Skipping Margaret, who is still an unknown, the other four are thought to have a history in the Hebron Church prior to their marriage. They had an earlier history of Lutheran worship and they are keeping it up after marriage.
For identifying Els Blankenbaker, I do not see much help in these Hoffman names. Many of the other names of people with Els fall into more of a pattern.
While doing this work, I note that the Hoffman/Huffman histories suggest that Michael, the son of the immigrant John, might have married Mary Fleshman. But as I look at the Fleshman history I do not see any possibility of this. Does anyone have an opinion on this?
(28 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.