Johannes Rehlsbach was baptized 16 Sept 1731 with parents Johann Georg Rehlsbach and Maria Catharina Gerhard, who were married in the chapel at Eisern. Johannes was the oldest child and he emigrated to Virginia, arriving on the ship Nancy at Philadelphia on 31 Aug 1750. Several consecutive names from the passenger list show that a group from Nassau-Siegen had emigrated together. John Railsback, as he became known in Virginia, was involved in several land transactions from 1757 to 1778 in Culpeper County.
When John Thomas gave land for "love and affections", to Jacob Holtzclaw and wife Susanna Thomas, to Joseph Holtzclaw and his wife Mary Thomas, and to Jacob Blankenbaker and his wife Mary Barbara Thomas, it was noted that John Railsback was a neighbor. At the same time, John Thomas sold land to John Railsback, who got twice as much land as the three known sons-in-law. This sale is regarded as another father-in-law to son-in-law transaction that cost John Railsback something because of the greater amount of land.
At the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley, at the christening of Catharina, the daughter of Johannes Relsbach and his wife Elizabeth, on 16 Mar 1777, the sponsors were Jacob Blankenbaker (Elizabeth's brother-in-law), Dorothy Tanner (her unmarried cousin), and Maria Zimmerman (her unmarried second cousin). This, with the land transactions already noted, serves as evidence that Elizabeth was of the John Thomas family.
The inference that John Thomas had originally divided some land into five parts to give away to his children seems well founded. Before the fifth parcel was given away, something happened that made this fifth parcel superfluous. Therefore, John Thomas sold this parcel to John Railsback.
Why was this fifth parcel not used as it appears to have been originally intended? It would appear that there was a fifth child who may have died, or who may have moved away, or who preferred to have the money rather than the land. Because John Thomas himself disappears from the records in Culpeper County, it may be that John Thomas and this fifth child moved away from Culpeper County.
The children of John Thomas may be taken as:
Susanna, who married Jacob Holtzclaw (Jr.),
Mary, who married Joseph Holtzclaw (brother of Jacob above),
Mary Barbara, who married Jacob Blankenbaker,
Elizabeth who married John Railsback, and
A fifth child.
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.