Let’s start with how the people who wrote up the baptismal register (see last note) could know in 1752 that Barbara Yager would marry a Chelf about 1768. Either they were fortune tellers, or there is more to the story than we have said so far. Well, it is the latter case. There was a set of records dating from 1750 and, in 1774 or 75, someone decided to rewrite the records of baptisms into a new book. They read the name Barbara Clore (Klor) and said that would not be a meaningful name as there was on one in the community in 1774 by that name. And they were correct. About 1767, Barbara Yager Clore’s husband, Peter, died. She married again, this time Philip Chelf. In 1768 there was someone in the community named Barbara Chelf but there was no Barbara Clore. So, in the 1774 or 1775 rewrite, all the Barbara Clores were converted into Barbara Chelfs.
Michael Yager made all of the right choices in selecting sponsors. He chose brothers and sisters and their spouses.
We are left with John Weaver (x2), Dorothy Cook Carpenter, John Zimmerman, Susanna Utz, Barbara Käfer Weaver (x3), Nancy Graves, and Eliz. Becker, for whom we have no known reason that they were selected. If we knew the maiden name of Michael Yager’s wife, Elizabeth, it might help explain some of these. As mentioned previously, we think she may have been a Manspiel. We wish that we knew more about the Manspiel family.
I have looked at whom Elizabeth Yager sat next to in church, as relatives often sat together. There is no pattern to the names of the people sitting next to Elizabeth. I have concluded that Elizabeth Yager was not from one of the families who are commonly found in church. That would be consistent with her being a Mansfield, but it is hardly evidence that she was a Mansfield.
We do have support as to who the brothers and sisters of Michael Yager were. Besides Michael, we have Barbara, John, Nicholas, and Godfrey, but not Adam. Godfrey, especially, was much younger than Michael. Godfrey had barely arrived when Michael left to start his own home. So I would not expect Michael and Godfrey to be very close. Godfrey shows up once about the time he is confirmed. Adam was about ten younger than Michael, so he too was probably not close.
Perhaps I should not have picked one of the troublesome sets to start this topic. I will look at some of the more classical ones that follow the expected pattern. My experience is that these odd balls have the most to tell us, as they often say something is not right in the standard story. If anyone can say something helpful about these unclassified sponsors for the children of Michael and Elizabeth Yager, please speak up.
(08 Feb 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.