John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 2483

*[Ist das Leben nicht schoen!]

In the last Note we saw that Jacob Holtzclaw filed his Naturalization Certificate or letter in the Spotsylvania Court rather than in the Stafford Court.  Stafford would be appropriate since he lived there.  I have sometimes wondered if there was any significance to this.  He wasn’t thinking of his descendants who knew that he lived in Stafford and therefore would look in the Stafford Court house for documents about him.  Sometimes it pays to look in adjoining counties.

Some people today tend to confuse the Headright Applications with the Naturalization process.  The two were entirely differently.  One did not have to be naturalized to obtain or to own land.  There are headright applications in the Spotsylvania Court House for Holscrow, Camper, Martin, Spellman, Fitchback, Huffman, Cuntz, Fitchback, Rickart, Brumback, Weaver, and Hitt.  These were all filed in 1724 at two different times.  Again, these people were living in Stafford County but they filed in Spotsylvania County.  Why?  Was the Spotsylvania Court House closer than the Stafford Court House?  Several of these people said they came in 1714, but the applications of Holtzclaw, Kemper, and Martin said they came in April of 1714.

Catherine Russell Thomas Holtzclaw is certainly under-documented.  I am not aware of the evidence that she was born a Russell and married a Thomas.  Which Russell was her father?  Was the Thomas a German or an English person?  Was she really married to him?  It is true that she had a son, Jacob, whose surname was Thomas.  Is Jacob more likely to be an English or a German name?  It is suspicious that two brothers of her Holtzclaw husband married German Thomases.  There are certainly questions in the family of Jacob Holtzclaw.

*[Isn’t life wonderful?]
(20 Mar 07)