Norma House has probably solved the mystery of the Marg. Bohannon who was a sponsor for a child of Christopher Zimmerman and Mary Tanner. The only problem is that she has Mary Bohannon and I have Marg. Bohannon but that is not an insurmountable problem. It merely requires some research to determine which possibility is the correct one (including the possibility that both are right).
Mary Tanner married Christopher Zimmerman. Mary Tanner's father and mother were Christopher Tanner and Elizabeth Aylor. Elizabeth Aylor had a brother Henry Aylor who married Anne Margaret Thomas. They had a daughter, Mary, who married a Mr. Bohannon.
Thus, when Mary Tanner Zimmerman chose Mary or Marg. Bohannon, she was choosing her first cousin, a very typical selection.
The lady in question, Mrs. Bohannon, might have had the name Mary Margaret Aylor at birth. It is not unusual for German women to use either of their two names, or both of their names. At different times, she might be called Mary, or Margaret, or Mary Margaret. This is explanation one for the difference in names.
In the church records, it is not uncommon to abbreviate Margaret or Margaretha as Marg. Very often the " g " is written with an open top and a transcriber has to debate with himself whether the letter is a " y " or a " g ". Now, normally the name Mary is not written that way, though sometimes it is. The more usual way, in German, is Maria. But still there are times that it is written Mary. Just the fact that on a few occasions it is written as Mary keeps the transcriber guessing. Explanation two is that the name was misread.
**** People in the USA have a difficult time understanding the attitude of European public agencies and churches toward the ownership of information. Generally, the Europeans will let one read their information but they ask, "What are you going to do with this?" I use the example of the Public Record Office in England. When you ask for a copy of a specific item, they respond with the question of what is the intended use. Depending on the size of the audience that it will go to, they will adjust their fees. They are very opposed to an exact copy of their documents being made by you because they could lose control. If you tell them the intended audience is small and the use is nonprofit, they will perhaps let you have a copy of the original for free (except for the copying costs, which tend to be steep).
The Colonial Records Project at the LoV has many filing cabinets of microfilm copies of documents in England. You are not supposed to make a copy of these documents. This was one of the terms of the records being made available to Virginia on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the founding of Virginia.
(12 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.