The genetics picture sometimes has more to it than we first imagine. There are Black Blankenbakers, some of whom, I suspect, adopted that name upon obtaining their freedom from slavery. There are Black Blankenbakers who have come by the surname genetically, i.e., they are descendants of Blankenbakers. There are Blacks who could claim the name Blankenbaker, but who have been denied the right to do so.
Thanks to a correspondent, I have the following cases from Madison County. Elias Blankenbaker was the great-grandson of John Nicholas Blankenbuehler, the 1717 immigrant. Sometimes his name is given as Nicholas, but it does seem as if he preferred to be called John Nicholas. The line of descent from John Nicholas to Elias was John Nicholas, Zacharias, John, and then Elias. Elias married first Lucenda Southard in 1820. They were the parents of six children from 1824 to 1844: Simeon, James Cornelius, Smith F., William B., Elias Frank, and Nicholas. The father Elias married secondly Helen B. Hood in ,but no children are known.
Smith F. Blankenbaker had three known children with the 'Black Lady', Cora or Cola. Although they never married, Smith gave his mulatto children his Blankenbaker surname. Smith is buried at Mt. Pisgah Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ruth, Madison County, VA. The names of two of the three children are unknown. The youngest, born 30 Apr 1873, had the name Bruster R. He did not die until 1951.
Smith’s brother, Elias Frank, had a Black common-law wife by the name of Laura Hill. She was been born in 1849. Elias denied Laura the use of his Blankenbaker surname for her children, and their mother chose the surname Hill for them. The eight children were Sue, William Yancey, Charles, Dora, John, Cornelia, Austin, and Virginia C.
Bruster, the son of Smith F., married Ella Washington in 1896 in Madison County. Both Bruster and Ella are buried in Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery. They had five children, one of whom was Ernest M. (Cletus) Blankenbaker. He married Maude Lee Carter and they had six children: Unknown, Elizabeth, Reva, Alice, Hilda, and Lawrence.
William Yancey Hill, the son of Elias Frank Blankenbaker and Laura Hill, married Maggie Banks. One child, Clifton (Sr.) Hill, is known and he married Leona Weaver. This latter couple had a son, Yancey, who was able to give my correspondent an oral history which the correspondent was able to confirm at the Madison Court House. This tied the Hills and the Blankenbakers together.
If I have understood the story correctly, Yancey and I have the same Y chromosome having a common ancestor in Thomas Blankenbuehler who never left Germany.
(25 Apr 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.