Two notes back, I gave some of the names that were more typical of the community around the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley. I will reverse the approach in this note and give some of the less frequent names. Many of these are a mystery to me. If you can help end my mystification, please send your comments along.
When Christopher Zimmerman and his wife Mary Tanner had their first two children baptized, that is, Susanna, born 7 May 1769, and Joshua, born 22 Aug 1771, they chose Marg. Bohannon as a sponsor on both occasions. Christopher Zimmerman was one of the real Zimmermans, the son of John, the son of the immigrant Christopher. (The ersatz Zimmermans were the Carpenters.) Other sponsors for these two kids were Jacob Gerber (Tanner), Elizabeth Zimmerman Holtzclaw (she had married Joseph), Joseph Holtzclaw, and Jacob Holtzclaw. These were, left to right, Mary's brother, Christopher's sister, Christopher's brother-in-law, Christopher's second cousin-in-law, who was also his brother-in-law's brother. Mary Bohannon though???
When John Becker and Elizabeth Clore had Elizabeth baptized, the sponsors were Peter Clore, Elizabeth Rossel, and Mary Rossel. Elizabeth had quite a few people to choose from, so why did she (or John) choose Elizabeth Rossel and Mary Rossel???? That there were no relatives of John Becker is understandable, as he seems to the first of the Beckers in the community. Or were the Rossels his relatives?
When George Cook and his wife Mary Sarah Reiner had their second child baptized (Margaret), one of the sponsors was Matthew Smith. And, again, for the third child (Magdalena), one sponsor was Matthew Smith. For the fourth child (Dorothy), one of the sponsors was Mary Smith. On some occasions, Nicholas Smith was chosen, but he had married a Reiner. George Cook was a Reiner in his own right, so the choice of anyone with a Reiner history is hardly a surprise. But there is no good explanation that I know for Matthew and Mary Smith. For this reason, I have often wondered if Mary Smith, whose maiden name is unknown, was a Cook. Michael Cook, the immigrant, left no will. We know that he divided his land among two sons and two sons-in-law. Was there another Cook child, Mary, who married Matthew Smith?
We should also keep in mind that the Smiths were from Gemmingen, and the Cooks were from Schwaigern. These villages were only three miles apart, maybe less. Perhaps the Smiths and Cooks had some common ancestors in Germany. Perhaps they thought of each other as close neighbors. In a more general way, if anyone has ideas as to the maiden name of Mary Smith who married Matthew Smith, I would like to hear their comments.
(07 Aug 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.