I am still with Els who married Zacharias Blankenbaker. The question before the house is, "What was her maiden name?" Toward that end, we are looking at the people with whom she sat during the Communion Services. As I go through some of the names, I will drop little hints.
In 1795, Susanna Berry was sitting two away from Els. Susanna was born a Smith, and that meant her father was J. Michael Smith, and her mother was Anna Magdalena THOMAS, the daughter of John Thomas, Sr. The person two away from Els on the other side was Susan Holtzclaw. This latter Susan was born a Thomas, the daughter of John THOMAS, Jr. She married Jacob Holtzclaw, the son of the 1714 Jacob Holtzclaw.
In 1798, Els was sitting with Susanna Berry again (see the previous paragraph). Els was also sitting with Magdalena Wayman, her daughter, and with Mary Wayman, her granddaughter.
On Easter of 1799, Els was sitting with Susanna (nee THOMAS) Holtzclaw. Also, there was an Elizabeth Holtzclaw. Of the two that Elizabeth Holtzclaw could be, neither is assigned a marriage partner, so apparently this was her maiden name. The probability is that she is the daughter of Susanna Holtzclaw, so she can claim some THOMAS genes also.
In 1801, there is an Elizabeth Smith. I do not know her identification.
In 1802, a Joseph Holtzclaw sat next to Els, and could be the Joseph who married Mary THOMAS as his first wife, or could be the son of Joseph and Mary. Since the son Joseph would be only 18 years old, my vote goes to the father.
In 1804, there is a Susanna Smith, but again, as with Elizabeth, I am not certain about the identity. I do note that there was a Smith family which had Thomas genes.
At two separate services following the one in 1804, Susanna Holtzclaw was again close to Els Blankenbaker. Again, this Susanna was born a THOMAS. For emphasis, since there were two appearances, I will list THOMAS again.
Not counting the Blankenbakers, I believe the most common surname is Thomas. This is not really too surprising, since Els had a brother-in-law who married a Thomas (Jacob Blankenbaker married Mary Barbara Thomas). So Els was acquainted with the Thomas family.
Any problem involving Thomas and Holtzclaw requires a further discussion on the interactions between these two families.
(30 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.