In preparing the notes on the descendants of Matthew Smith, I was following material that I had published about eleven years ago. At that time, I said that Prof. B. C. Holtzclaw had contributed much to Germanna research, and noted that none of his work had been published at the time of his death. The Germanna Foundation gave me copies of some of this material and said that I might publish it. Over a few years I published most of it. When I wrote about the Matthew Smith descendants, I used his material, and noted that I was following very closely his work. Since the last note, I have been asked about some of this data. The corrections that I gave were his corrections to his own previously published work. I have not attempted to verify this.
In the last note I discussed the line of Nicholas Smith, the son of Matthew Smith, the immigrant. I gave the four sons of Nicholas, John, Nicholas, Jr., Michael, and Godfrey. John apparently never married, as he left his property to his nephews and nieces.
I continue now with the son Nicholas, Jr., a grandson of the immigrant, Matthew. He was probably born ca. 1754-1756, and died in Washington Co., VA, in 1804. He married ca. 1783-1784, Susannah Yager, born 1766, as she was confirmed at Hebron in 1782 at the age of 16. She was the daughter of Godfrey Yager and his first wife ____ Klug, who was the daughter of Rev. Klug. As Nicholas Smith, Jr., he was in the militia in the Culpeper Classes (#93). His will, probated in Madison Co., 22 Nov 1804, leaves his property to his wife "until the youngest child comes of age". The will does not name the children though.
The births of the children, except the apparently eldest, who was Mary, are recorded at the church. They are also mentioned in a suit brought by Nicholas' brother John against his brothers Godfrey and Michael, and the heirs of his brother Nicholas. The basis for the suit was an attempt to get the estate of Nicholas Smith, Sr., settled. The heirs of Nicholas are given as Mary, Elizabeth, Anna Gabriel, Joel, Jeremiah, Juliana, and Noah Smith. It was also stated that Mary had married Isaac Skinner, and he too became a defendant. Isaac Skinner also became the guardian of Juliana Smith, orphan of Nicholas (this was in 1818).
On 18 Aug 1831, Joel Smith, Jeremiah Smith, and Noah Smith, with Gabriel Crisler, who had married ____ Smith, deeded 118 acres to John Lindsay.
Joel Smith married Helen Smith in 1817. Jeremiah married Mary Eddins in 1818. Julianna was probably the one who married Gabriel Crisler.
(08 Mar 02)
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.