In the Rappahannock Regional Library, I came across the following marriages in Orange County. Normally, by the time that we expect to find marriage licenses, we do not look in the records of Orange County which is outside the Great Fork.
25 May 1790 (date of the bond): Zachary Lee married Sarah Mankspoil, the daughter of Adam and Mary Mankspoil who consent. The surety was Abner Watson. A witness was James Taylor, Jr.
7 Nov 1785 (date of the bond): Henry Long and Lucy Manspoile. Surety was John Long. A witness was Henry Winslow.
According to Germanna Record 6 , Jacob Manspeil patented 400 acres of land in 1734 (on the north side of the Germans in the Robinson River Valley). He was admitted to citizenship on 24 February 1742/43. His eldest son may have been John, and his wife Ann, who deeded land to John Deer in Culpeper in 1752. Jacob Manspiel still was the owner of the 400 acres in 1764. Some of this land was deeded to John Broyle in 1764. In this same year, Jacob Manspile gave land to William Adkins and Margaret his wife, and to James Shearer and Anna his wife. This would indicate at least three children: John, Margaret, and Anna. The two women in the marriage licenses above might have been daughters of John who had moved to Orange County.
Another marriage is indicated in Deed Book 17 of Orange Co. On 7 January 1778, John Gillock and Hannah Wolfengerger, both of St. Thomas’s Parish, were married. Now Wolfengerger is not an Irish name. Usually it is spelled Wolfenberger. The Wolfenbergers are one of the under-recognized Germanna families. Some of the others which are scattered throughout the pages of Beyond Germanna are the names of Germans such as Wolfenberger, Lehman, Leyerle, Gerhardt, Crecelius, Ernst, and Wrede, who are not generally recognized as Germanna citizens even though they lived, at least briefly, in the Germanna area.
Discussions with Wolfenberger descendants show that the family lived a few years in the Germanna area before moving on.
At the Conference last weekend, someone complained that they could not find where their ancestor was for a period of a few years. I said that they should consider that the family might have been in transient, perhaps trying an area to see if they wanted to stay there or perhaps looking for a good land buy. The Wolfenbergers may have been in this category. The record above would suggest that they were living in the Orange County area.
(27 Jun 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.