Looking at the sponsors for the children of John Hofmann and Maria Sabina Volck, there were always three, which is more typical of Lutherans than Reformed (as John was). Maria Sabina was baptized as a Lutheran herself, and apparently her mother (Barbara Utz) was a Lutheran also. At least, she married George Utz in a Lutheran church and he was a known Lutheran. (A picture of this church is shown in the photos that Sgt. George maintains, see Hueffenhardt .)
For the first seven children, Barbara Utz was always a sponsor. Perhaps she died before any of the following children were baptized starting in 1742. Having a mother fulfills the usual requirement for a relative, either by blood or marriage. Lutheran practice would usually prefer someone younger than a parent as a sponsor but it does allow it.
When Maria Sabina's mother was gone, the wife of Balthasar Blankenbaker (Anna Margaretha) was a sponsor instead of her Maria Sabina's mother. One sort of gets the feeling that Anne Margaret was close to Maria Sabina. A very likely thought is that Anne Margaret was a sister to the mother Anne Barbara. After "my wife's mother" died, Anne Margaret served four of the five times. (Incidentally, Balthasar Blankenbaker and George Utz had adjacent land patents. Perhaps this was the result of their wives being sisters.) Balthasar served ten times, and this may have been because he was an uncle by marriage of Maria Sabina.
A very striking aspect was the prominent role that Nicholas Yager played in these baptisms. He missed only one. Notice also that the very first son was named for Nicholas also.
The only way in which he could have been reasonably chosen was that his wife was a relative of Maria Sabina. (John Hoffman seems to have no loose female relatives floating around, or did he?) We know that Nicholas Yager came to Virginia with a wife named Mary, and that this was the name of the woman he married in Marienthal. Their children were Adam and Mary, who were born in Germany. So Mary, wife of Nicholas, could have died very soon after arrival in Virginia (or even before), and Nicholas could have married again. Perhaps this was another sister of Barbara (Maier) Utz which would make Nicholas another uncle of Maria Sabina.
Does anyone know if there is any record of Mary Yager, wife of Nicholas, after their arrival in Virginia? If he married another Mary, it would be masked in the records because that is the name we are expecting. Even if he married a second time, I don't think it would upset any genealogy that we know, OR WOULD IT?
Could Nicholas Yager have been the father of two Adam Yagers? That is just a wild thought. One Adam was born in Germany in 1708. The second might have been born in 1718, just to pick a year at random. We do seem to have another wife for Nicholas Yager from the Hofmann baptisms.
(26 Jun 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.