One of the early families in the Robinson River Valley was the Wayland family. According to his application for head rights, which was made in 1729 in November, Thomas Wayland said he came with his wife Mary and children Jacob and Katherine. His land patent was issued in 1728, two years after the majority of the Second Colony had their land patents. It is assumed that Thomas Wayland probably came about 1719.
Cerny and Zimmerman found Thomas Wieland who had married Maria Barbara Seppach in 1711 at Willsbach, Württemberg. Their first two children were born at Waldbach, Württemberg, in 1713 and 1715. Their names were Hans Jacob and Anna Catharina Clara . All of these names can be matched to the names in the head right application.
It has been doubted that Wieland would become the name Wayland since Wieland could be expected to be pronounced as Vee-lant. The choice of the "d" or the "t" is not that significant. Other individuals say that in the southwest region of Germany, where Thomas Wieland came from, that the Wie could be pronounced as Vay. In the German community,the name was probably pronounced as "Vay • land", which became, in time, "Way • land" in pronounciation.
The photo page which George Durman maintains has a few photos of Waldbach , which is about fifteen miles east of Heilbronn. (Although there are no maps of Waldbach yet, you may check the "Map" page occasionally and see the maps when they are added.
Except for the head right application, there is no record of Jacob or Katharina in Virginia. They could have been dead by the time of the application even. The two children, by whom he had two more children.
John Wayland married Catherine Broyles, a daughter of Jacob Broyles and a granddaughter of John Broyles, the original emigrant. They had a large family and the children married mostly other Germanna people.
Adam was prominent at the German Lutheran Church. He appears in three communion lists, and, in two of these, he and Mary are the first names.
What he is best known for is writing a will when he was married to his first wife, Elizabeth Blankenbaker. She died and he married Mary Finks. He failed to update his will before he died, so the will failed to mention his second wife and the two children of which she was the mother. This led to a lawsuit which makes clear the family structures and the children of each mother.
(12 Aug 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.