If we want to study how several Germanna families are related, we should go back in time as far as we can. I will start with Anna Barbara Schoen who was born 29 Sep 1666. As her first husband, she married John Thomas Blankenbaker. For her second husband she married Johann Jacob Schlucter. Her third husband was Cyriacus Fleshman. So right away the Blankenbakers, Schlucters, and the Fleshmans share a common ancestor.
We do not know if there are any descendants of Henry Schlucter, Anna Barbara's son, who did come to Virginia and who appears to have married a Sarah.
If we look at the two daughters of Balthasar Blankenbaker, a son of Anna Barbara, we see that his daughter Anna Barbara married Ludwig Fisher. We believe that all of the Germanna Fishers descend from Ludwig so all of the Fishers have an ancestor in Anna Barbara Schoen. The other daughter, Elizabeth, married Adam Wayland. A fair percentage of the Waylands, but still a minority of them, have Anna Barbara Schoen also for an ancestor.
Of the four Garr children of Andreas and Eva, three of them married descendants of Anna Barbara. Anyone today with the Garr name inherited from the Germanna Garrs would have an ancestor in Anna Barbara Schoen.
There were two Kaefer people who emigrated to Virginia. Apollonia Kaefer married Nicholas Blankenbaker, and Michael Kaefer married Anna Maria Blankenbaker, as her second husband. Therefore, anyone claiming a Germanna Kaefer/Kaifer as an ancestor would have Anna Barbara as an ancestor.
Since the immigrant John Michael Smith has only one son who married Anna Magdalena Thomas, all of the descendants below John Michael Smith, Jr. have Anna Barbara as a person in their lineage.
Two of the three Barlow sons married descendants of Anna Barbara via Catherine Fleshman and Mary Smith of John Michael Smith, Jr.
We recently saw that two of the five sons of the immigrant Jacob Holtzclaw have Anna Barbara as an ancestor. The descendants of John Railsback also have Anna Barbara.
I believe that Henry Aylor married Margaret Thomas and so all of his descendants have Anna Barbara.
I was only attempting to name families where a sizeable percentage of the descendants have Anna Barbara Schoen for an ancestor. Did I miss some?
(17 Feb 04)
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.