One of the better-known Tithe lists, from the standpoint of the Germans, is John Mickell's, in the year 1739. He starts with J. Fry's Quarter, which from the land patents should be in the area where the Robinson River flows into the Rapidan River. He then moves west toward modern Madison on the north side of the Robinson River.
The first names are English:
If one has a plot of the original Land Patents, one can see that John Mickell was very methodical in his survey. An exception to the Land Patent rule occurs for Ludwig, or Lewis, Fisher; however, there is a logic to his position in the sequence, as he married Anna Barbara, the daughter of Balthasar (Paul) Blankenbaker, and he was living on his father-in-law's farm. Conrat Slater had no Land Patent, but he may be connected to Henry Shiter, and both "Slater" and "Shiter" may have actually had the name "Schlucter". Henry Schlucter was the uncle of John Thomas, and also the uncle of John Zimmerman's wife, Ursula Blankenbaker. [It is a mystery why Henry Schlucter had no land patent of his own.] Henry Schlucter was born in 1697, so he was 20 when he arrived in America. If he married soon after coming [Sarah was the name of his later wife], he could have had a son by an unknown "first wife". Possibly, this is the origin of Conrad Slater, who seems to be definitely a part of the Neuenbürg crowd, which included the Blankenbakers, the Sheibles, the Fleshmans, and the Thomases.
Martin Dalbeck is an unknown. German or English? Ouylor is probably Aylor. The full name of Henry Aylor who married Anna Margaret Thomas was, in English, George Henry Aylor. On this occasion he seems to have used both his names, and John Mickell omitted the second name on the theory that one first name was enough. A German, who had to select one of two given names to use, would have chosen the second as the more probable. John Mickell missed badly on the name of John Paul Vaught whom he called John Full.
(28 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.