I apologize that I did not give all of the children of Christopher and Christina (Finks) Blankenbaker in the last note.
The omission of Jonas was an oversight error on my part. He was born 18 Jun 1767, with sponsors Adam Wayland, wife Elis. In the section of the Baptismal Register that I was using, Jonas occurred between Lewis (Ludwig) and Margaret (Margaretha), and I should have listed him by the guide lines I was using which emphasized this section of the Baptismal Register.
However, the daughter Hanna was born 25 May 1778 and this was recorded in a different section of the Register, which I had not particularly intended to use. For completeness, I should have listed her too. Hanna had sponsors Jacob Blankenbaker, Mary Wayland, and Mary Utz. Mary Wayland may have been Adam Wayland's second wife, who was Mary Finks. As such, she was a sister of the mother. Mary Utz escapes me just now, unless this is the Mary Finks Wayland Utz who married Daniel Utz after Adam Wayland died. In this case, the previous Mary Wayland was classified incorrectly.
All of these children except Hanna were recorded together on one page in the Baptismal Register. Hanna was on a different page. Why would an exception be made for one child?
About 1775, the Baptismal Register was reorganized and rewritten. From a chronological sequence, or from scraps of paper, the data was organized by families who were still living in the neighborhood. Some of the families were not yet complete, but with the coming of Jacob Franck as minister in 1775, the recording was changed to a chronological sequence. Some of the later children were reentered in the family pages but generally they were not. This is what happened to Hanna Blankenbaker. She was entered in the time-ordered sequence and was never carried back to the family section.
There is a lot to be understood about the Baptismal Register and much of it can be deduced from the register itself. The point that I was trying to emphasize here was how the sponsors were chosen. In the case of Christopher and Christina (Finks) Blankenbaker, they were chosen from relatives, even though neither had brothers or sisters who were able or willing to serve. I will give another set of parents and sponsors showing a classical case of choosing very close relatives.
(This assumes that I have time from digging out of the snow which has fallen on us.)
(17 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.