John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1702

John Huffman/Hoffman was married twice.  At about the time of his second marriage he moved to the Robinson River Valley, which is where his second wife was living.  John kept a record of the baptisms of his children in his Bible (inherited from his father after 1731).  I am going to give only the second marriage information.

"On 13 July 1729 I was married to my second wife Maria Sabina, the daughter of the deceased John Michael Folg of Wagenbach.  She was born 29 March 1710."
[Of course, this was written in German.]

We now know from the German church records that Maria Sabina's last name was more properly Volck, which is an almost sound-alike of Folg.  She was baptized in the Lutheran church at Hueffenhardt, which is the nearest church to the Wagenbach farm.  Her father died and her mother married George Utz.  So the mother of Maria Sabina was Barbara Utz, nee Majer (Maier, perhaps Moyer).  George Utz and John Hoffman had adjoining land patents in the Robinson River Valley.

In almost every church denomination, anyone can baptize another person.  This view came about because some churches regard baptism as essential for entry into heaven and they did not want to deprive anyone of entrance just because a priest, pastor, or minister was not available.  (I know a mother who baptized her children just as soon as they were given to her.)  There are certain words to be said and anyone (well, presumably a believer) can say them.  Probably John Hoffman held a more formal service at which the witnesses were present, and probably he actually did the baptism.

These were the sponsors of the twelve children of Maria Sabina:

1. NY, BB, MMW.  This son was named Nicholas.  [NY is Nicholas Yager.]
2. NY, BB, MMW.  [BB is Balthasar Blankenbaker.]
3. NY, BB, MMW.  [MMW is "the mother of my wife", who is never identified, but she was Barbara Utz.]
4. NY, BB, MMW.  This son was named Baltz (Balthasar).
5. NY, BB, MMW.
6. NY, BB, MMW.
7. NY, BB, MMW.  (This was in 1740.)
8. NY, BB and his wife.  (This was in 1742.)
9. NY, BB and his wife.
10. NY and Susanna his wife, and Ann Margaret, the wife of BB. (This was in 1746.)
11. BB and his wife, and the wife of NY.
12. NY, Georgia his wife, (and) the wife of BB.  (This was in 1751, when Susanna was still living.)

This was published by John W. Wayland as " John Hoffman of Germanna and Some of His Descendants ", in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 63, n. 4, (1955) p. 454-460 .  He claimed to have seen a first copy of the original, but no one knows where the original or the copy is.
(25 Jun 03)