Another church record from London that is of extreme interest to us was a record of the baptism of the baby girl, Dorothea Koch, the daughter of Johann Michael Koch and Barbara, both Pfaltzers. Dorothea was born on 8 September and baptized on 9 September. Her sponsors were Henrich Schneider and Maria Eleanora Scheibel. Every name in this record is known to us. The Cooks were from Schwaigern. The Kochs, Henry Schneider, and Maria Eleanora Scheibel were from different villages, and probably had not known each other before they left their homes.
It is an assumption that the Dorothy Koch/Cook here is the same as the Dorothy Cook in Virginia. Due to the practice of using a given name again, especially when the first of a given name has died, it may be the case that the baby baptized in London is not the one known in Virginia, but unless there is some reason to doubt it, it would assume there is only one Dorothy.
Some of the other records pertain to individuals that are not known to us, or are about individuals of which we are uncertain. For example, on 4 August a baby boy was born to Hanss Nicolay Weiss, a Pfaltzer, and his wife Anna Cathrina. The boy was named Jürgen (George) Adam. His sponsors were Jürgen Meyer (actually Meler) and Hans Adam Rausch. The two sponsors’ names draw our attention. The Meyer name, with an umlauted “y” (ÿ) could be read as Meier, which is coming close enough to Mayer or Moyer to be of special interest, especially with the first name of George. As we read the German church records, we would want to keep the names Weiss, Meier, and Rausch in mind. The name Hans Adam Rausch duplicates the name of one of the sons of John Rausch, or Rouse, in Virginia (or Rush, in North Carolina).
Some of the church records would seem to pertain to Germans who were residents in London, perhaps there only temporarily. For example, Jacob Borman and his wife Carlotha Magdal[ena] had their son Diedrich Jacob baptized (18 August). The sponsors were Richard Stabeler (written in English letters), Diedrich Funcke, and Aramintas Davis (written in English letters). Because Herr Funcke could not attend, Herr Scheible answered in his place. [In reading a longer history than is being reported here, there seemed to be a Mr. Scheible who lived in London, and he is to be distinguished from the Second Colony Scheible by the use of the title “Herr” with the London resident.] The title “Herr” is not strictly equivalent to our “Mister”. Most German men would not have any title, and only the more significant members of the community were accorded the title of "Herr". At Gemmingen, the mayor, the school teacher, the pastors, and all of the men named Gemmingen were called "Herr", but not the Webers, Klaars, or Schmidts.
(In other words, if one had no special standing in a community, and was just another "John Doe", he would not be called "Mister Scheible" or "Mister Funcke"; he would just be known as "Scheible" or "Funcke". As John says, "Herr" ("Mister"), at that time, was not applied to every male; it was applied only to those men who had a "standing" in the community. GWD
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(13 Jul 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.