John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1839

I continue with the children of John Wendel Thomas.  Late in his life, John Wendel Thomas made gifts of land to three men, his sons-in-law.  A fourth man, John Railsback, also his son-in-law, got twice as much land, but he paid some money for part of it.  Thus it appears that the original intention may have been to divide the land of John Wendel Thomas into five parts for five heirs but before the division was made one heir opted out or died.

The four known children of John Wendel Thomas, all women, were:

1. Susanna, who married Jacob Holtzclaw.
2. Mary, who married Joseph Holtzclaw.
3. Mary Barbara, who married Jacob Blankenbaker.
4. Elizabeth, who married John Railsback.  John got twice as much land but he did pay some cash for part of it.

There is a hint that the fifth part had been intended for a son, Michael Thomas, who moved to North Carolina.  We have no proof of this but the story that the descendants of the North Carolina Michael Thomas tell is so suggestive, taken with the apparent fivefold land division in Virginia, that this Michael can be considered as a probable son of John Wendel Thomas.

The immigrant Hans Jacob Holtzclaw had five sons.  The descendants of two of these sons have a Blankenbaker ancestor.  Joseph Holtzclaw, the son who married Mary Thomas, was married a second time to Elizabeth Zimmerman.  But this Elizabeth also had a Blankenbaker ancestor as her father was John Zimmerman and her mother was Ursula Blankenbaker.

I have always been fascinated by the appearance of the widow Catherine Russell Thomas who married John Holtzclaw.  Was the first husband of this Catherine related to the Robinson River Thomases?  Were these Thomas families acquainted and is this the reason that Jacob and Joseph Holtzclaw came down from Fauquier County and married two Thomas girls?

I think there are more Holtzclaw and Blankenbaker connections than we know right now.
(13 Feb 04)