I am still writing about the family of Henry Huffman, the 1743 immigrant. Much information about the family is to be found in the Baptismal Register of the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley, in particular for the families of Peter Weaver and George Cook, who married daughters of Henry Huffman.
There is an open question that is not easy to answer. I won’t give a definitive answer here, but I wish to point out some potentially conflicting information, which, even though it does not agree, does not upset the general conclusions. When Peter Weaver and his wife Maria (Huffman) had their daughter Helena (later called Eleanor) baptized in 1766, the sponsors were John Weaver (Peter's brother), Anna Huffman (Maria's unmarried sister, who is distinct from Anna Maria Huffman), and George Cook’s wife, who is not otherwise identified.
George Cook’s first wife was Mary Sarah Reiner. By the “rules” used in choosing sponsors in this time period, Mary Sarah Reiner would be an illogical choice. What we do know is that George Cook’s second wife was Anna Maria Huffman. If George Cook’s wife had been Anna Maria Huffman in 1766, her choice would have been logical for she was a sister of Maria Huffman.
Looking at the baptisms of George Cook’s children, we have children baptized in 1751, 1753, 1756, 1758 and 1762. The sponsors are logical (with the exception of Matthew Smith and Maria Smith) in the sense they are relatives of George Cook and his first wife Maria Sara Reiner. After the baptism of Dorothea in 1762, a note is entered which says, “Dina has died.” Then four years after Dorothea was baptized, Ludwig is baptized in 1768. According to the sponsors for Peter Weaver’s children, one of whom is the “wife of George Cook” in 1766, the mother of Ludwig should be Anna Maria Huffman. The sponsors, though, for Ludwig (Lewis) do not suggest this, as they are all relatives of George Cook and his first wife Maria Sara Reiner.
To add to the confusion, there is a note in the Baptismal Register at this point which says, “Second Wife, Anna Maria born Huffman, Reformed Religion.” The placement of this note suggests that it might apply to the birth of Ambrose Cook born in 1775. This Baptismal Record was copied from the one made by Rev. Frank and it might have been at a much later time when the copyist had forgotten the exact details.
In spite of the fact that Ludwig has no sponsors from the Huffman complex, I am inclined to believe that he was the son of Anna Maria Huffman. Only then would the choice of George Cook’s wife as a sponsor for Helena Weaver make sense.
(21 Aug 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.