I thought we might discuss some of the baptism records at the German Lutheran Church in Culpeper County. Nearly all of these were made when the church was in Culpeper County, though it later fell into Madison County. In time, its name also changed to Hebron.
Picking a baptism at random, one of the two on 25 Aug 1776 by Rev. Franck:
Johannes Rothoefer and his wife Maria _ ? _ brought David for baptism. The sponsors were Nicholas Jager, Johannes Jager & his wife Maria (Willheit).
This is the only occurrence I know for the name Rothoefer in the Germanna area. My introduction to the name was in the Shenandoah Valley when John Yager sold a lot in Woodstock to Jacob Good. Witnesses to the deed were Jacob Yeager, John Rodeheifer, Joseph Rodeheifer, and John Rodeheifer, sadler.
If you think the baptism and the deed are referring to the same John Yager then you have not read Jan Creek's analysis of the Adam Yager who lived a good part of his life around Woodstock. She showed that he was distinct from the Adam Yager in the Germanna area proper. To keep them straight she called one Woodstock Adam. Woodstock Adam had a son John and this John makes it clear that he was selling a lot that his father Adam had agreed to sell to Jacob Good.
Knowing that baptismal sponsors at the Culpeper Lutheran Church were usually related to the parents, we are left trying to explain the connection between the parents Rothoefer and witnesses Rodeheifer in Woodstock. Perhaps they are the same (the spelling variation is not significant). The John Yagers are different we believe, or are they different?
Notice that one of the sponsors was Nicholas Yager and the combination of Nicholas and John Yager suggests that we are indeed talking about sons of Adam Yeager, son of Nicholas, all residents in the Germanna area.
We do seem to have some connection between Woodstock John Yager and Germanna John Yager to judge by the baptism and the deed, where the common element is the Rodheifer name. The genealogies, though, show no connection.
There are several anomalies in Yager baptisms and I will develop them. I may have to repeat this one for newcomers to this situation. Let me know. All comments are welcome as I have had to put "?" in the Hebron Baptismal Register for the relationship of the sponsors to the parents on the Rodeheifer baptism cited above and that irritates me.
(24 Jul 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.