The last note discussed the Baptismal Records at the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley. There was another group of records, the history of who took Communion. These essentially started with Rev. Franck in 1775 and lasted through Rev. Carpenter in 1812, though there are a few later than this. The keeping of the names of who took Communion is not a universal practice, either in Germany or in America. Aside from informing the pastor as to who was coming to Communion, there was a need in Colonial times in Virginia for a record to substantiate the fact that a person had taken Communion in the three months prior to being naturalized.
There is a minor value today in informing us about the history of the early churches. A major value is not so obvious. In the " German Chapel ", it can be seen that the communicants were very apt to be related to their adjacent neighbors in the list. This is perhaps not surprising since people do tend to associate with their relatives, especially if they have not seen them for a period of time. There is a more mechanical reason in that the Lutherans had a prescribed methodology to determine the order in which people took Communion.
Take Easter Sunday in 1776 as an example. Of the first eleven couples in the Communion List, at least one of the partners in ten of the cases was descended from the same woman (Anna Barbara Schoene). In one couple, an earlier wife was the descendant. In one couple there was no relationship that we know. This tendency was the strongest in the case of the first names in the list. The later names tend less to be related but this is understandable as these were the people who sat in the back pews.
Again, as with the baptisms, having worked out the relationships for many families in many of the lists, the information can be utilized to help in finding the relationships among some unknown people. While not as powerful as the Baptismal Lists, the Communion Lists are a help.
For example, I used the Communion Lists to find the wife of Peter Fleshman. The lists were useful, even though they were made after Peter Fleshman and his wife had died, because the associations continued into the following generations as first and second cousins tended to associate.
The information was useful in naming the daughters of Jacob Crigler. The Communion lLists helped tremendously, beyond what was a mystery in the Baptismal Lists, to identify two daughters of Jacob Crigler. Mark Finks had a daughter, Elizabeth, whose behavior seemed abnormal in the light of all of the other cases. But when the information was combined with the observation of Nancy Dodge that Mark Finks seemed to have been married more than once, the abnormal behavior in the Communion Lists became understandable and then confirmed Nancy’s observation.
In all of the records of this type, I caution that they must be studied in totality before assuming any rules apply. Don’t go to another church and try to apply the rules which hold for the German Lutheran Church in Culpeper and Madison Counties.
(22 Mar 06)
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.