Continuing the discussion of errors in the book, " Genealogy of the Descendants of John Gar, or More Particularly of His Son, Andreas Gaar ", a.k.a. the " Garr Genealogy ", the ages that the authors estimate for the daughters of Michael Blankenbaker and Elizabeth Barbara Garr are significantly in error.
Rosina was confirmed in 1785 at age 18 so her birth year would be 1766/67, and not 1763 as estimated by the author.
Eleanor was confirmed at age 16 in 1782 so she was born 1765/66, and not in 1755 as estimated in the book.
Jemima was confirmed in 1777, age unknown, but a typical age of 17 would yield a birth year of about 1760, not 1745 as given in the book (a fifteen-year error!).
Using the age of husbands, one known birthday, and the years in which children appear, the following is a better estimate of the birth years:
Margaret, *1749
Elizabeth, *1752
Mary, *1754
Jemima, *1760
Christina, *1763
Eleanor, *1765
Rosanna, *1767
Probably, between Mary and Jemima there were one or two other children who did not live.
One could draw the conclusion that the Garrs, father and son, did not make use of the Communion Lists at the German Lutheran Church ("Hebron"), where the ages of many people at their confirmation are recorded. As a consequence many people are following the Garrs in the " Garr Geneology " and using their estimates of the birth years, which are seriously in error for several of the girls. (There were no boys in the family.)
Though the Communion Lists are hard to read, they have been transcribed and published by Andreas Mielke and me (and we also drew upon the work of Nancy Dodge). There is more to the Lists than a tabulation of names, but one must work hard to ferret out the information.
(28 Jun 05)
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.