I have mentioned Zacharias (or Zachariah) Blankenbeckler, who moved from Culpeper County to what became Wythe County, both in Virginia. The primary researcher of the Blankenbeckler family is Hallie Price Garner who had garnered (no pun intended) information on about 10,000 descendants of Zachariah, even though she has been frustrated on some of his daughters. At one time she planned on publishing a book with her research but the market response from the descendants was poor so she has postponed publication. We are currently discussing more economical means of publication so that her research will not be lost.
If you have information that should be included in any publication of this nature, Hallie would like to learn more about it. Please contact me and I can give you her email address and her USPS address. Or if you are interested in any future publication, please let Hallie know.
[I have a soft spot in my heart for Hallie. So far as I know, she is the first American to visit Gresten, Austria, the home of the Blankenbichlers (Planckenbichler, Plankenbuehlers, Blankenbuehlers, et al). This encouraged Eleanor and me to visit on two succeeding occasions with very favorable results.]
I gave the Hart information that I have shared here recently to Hallie. She notes that she has seen Harts mentioned in the New River region where Zachariah lived. She adds that she has at least three Blankenbeckler women who married Harts in the early part of the last century (by which I assume that she means the 1800's but it would matter little if it were the 1900's). She says that her research has shown certain families constantly intermingle (marry), while other families never seem to be involved with each other.
In the New River area, I mentioned the grave of Valentine Hart who was born September 3, 1769. There was some evidence that Michael Thomas had married Eva Susanna Margaret Hart before this time, so Valentine, Jr., should have been born in the Culpeper area (later Madison County). Is this evidence that Valentine, Jr., was not born in Culpeper, since he does not appear in the "Hebron" Baptismal Records which seem to cover this period? In the rewrite of the Baptismal Register about 1774 or 75, there were certain (implied) rules. One is that no family was included if it was not complete up to the time of the rewrite. Every family who is included in this rewrite seems to be complete up to that time. I have found no exceptions to this. Whoever was doing the rewrite may have said that he would wait until there was complete information. If he left the community (which is what Andreas Mielke believes) the job may never have been completed. So it does not worry me that Valentine, Jr., does not appear in the Baptismal Register.
(03 May 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.