I am continuing the discussion of Matthias House who had three wives, the second of which was Margaret Zimmerman, the daughter of John Zimmerman and Ursula Blankenbaker. This Margaret had two nieces named Margaret, both of which were younger. Using the "Hebron Communion Lists", we see that a Margaret Zimmerman attended communion services in 1775. She was sitting next to Mary Zimmerman, her sister. In order to participate in a communion service, one had to be confirmed. We have no record of this but it would not be unreasonable to put her age at about twenty considering a number of factors.
She attended the communion on the 17th Sunday after Trinity in 1776, sitting next to Rosina Blankenbaker. For the Easter 1777 communion she attended and sat next to Anna Barbara Fisher (nee Blankenbaker). Then she attended the 25th Sunday after Trinity in 1782. Don't think that she was lax or not attentive to her church going, since in those years 1778-1781 there was no minister.
The next appearance of a Margaret Zimmerman is the 19th Sunday after Trinity in 1800, when a Margaret Zimmerman was confirmed. This, of course, is a different Margaret. Or to put it differently, for eighteen years there was no Margaret Zimmerman at church. She either died or changed her name, and I suggest that she changed her name to House.
Matthias House and his wife Mary Margaret had children baptized in 1776 and 1778. In 1787 and 1789, Matthias House and his wife Margaret had two children baptized (for the details on the baptisms, see Note 1563 ). In between these events there were, apparently, three other House children who were baptized but not recorded. For the spacing of the House children, which was rather "tight", probably the oldest, or perhaps the two oldest, of these three children was the child of Mary Margaret. It could have been that all three of the children who were unrecorded children were the children of Mary Margaret Unknown (some say Jeckel). As I have been writing this note, the last statement is the conclusion I have came to.
To understand the events at the church, one needs to know what was happening there in the decade after 1778, which was the last year that Jacob Franck was present as pastor. Briefly, though, one should not be concerned too much about an appearance, or nonappearance, of people at the church during this period. There was one other appearance of Margaret Zimmerman (d/o of John and Ursula) in the church records. That was in 1778 when she was a sponsor with her brother and sister for a child of Joseph Holtzclaw and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was another child of John and Ursula. Joseph and Elizabeth returned the favor in 1787 when they were sponsors for a child (Moses of Matthias House and Margaret).
(13 Jan 03)
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.