The reasons that I thought Timothy Swindell might not be German include the following. There were other Swindels in Culpeper County living in areas where the Germans normally did not live. Timothy did not appear at the German Lutheran Church where the working language was German. And I did not think that "Timothy" sounded very German.
When Michael Swindle and his wife Elizabeth (Utz) had their daughter Hannah baptized, the sponsors were George Utz, Jr. (her brother), Rebecca Frey (his sister), and Margaret Broyles (her sister). In these comments, "his" and "her" refer to the parents. Now it is true that Rebecca Frey has not been proven to be Michael's sister yet, but this forms a part of a pattern. Notice that the other two sponsors were her brother and her sister. Michael was due to have someone from his family if it were possible.
When Peter Clore and his wife Mary (Fray) had their daughter Mary baptized (in 1782), the sponsors where John Weaver, Jr. (his cousin), Rebecca Frey (her sister-in-law who married John Fray), and Hannah Swindle (his aunt). Again, it is not proven that Rebecca married John Fray but this sponsorship only adds to the pattern which supports the idea.
When John Fray and his wife Rebecca (Swindle) had their son Aaron baptized in 1776, the sponsors were Peter Clore (his brother-in-law), Michael Swindle (her brother), and Hannah Swindle (her sister-in-law who had married Michael). The choice of two sponsors from the Swindle family is the clincher here to show that Rebecca was indeed a Swindle.
In choosing sponsors, in-laws were as good as the brothers and sisters. In many cases they appear about as often as brothers and sisters. Another category, the cousins and the spouses of cousins, were very common, and, in some families, rivaled the brothers and sisters in popularity. By the time that you go through the brothers and sisters, the in-laws, and the cousins, then this often covers about 90% of the sponsors. Nearly always the sponsors are of the same generation as the parents, but there are exceptions. It is hard to pick a sponsor who is entirely unrelated to the parents. There are several cases where we do not know the relationship, but I would assume the sponsors are related by blood or marriage, and of the same generation, before I would assume anything else.
There are about seventeen baptisms in which either a parent, or at least one sponsor, is a Swindle. These have proven to be useful in determining the family structure. As I commented in the last note, B. C. Holtzclaw had determined there were at least three sons. These are confirmed by the baptisms, which also show there were at least two daughters.
(21 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.