[Continuing Barbara Vines Little's research on John Rector.]

On 17 October 1774, William Lodspik [Lotspeich] and Magdaline [Klug] his wife of Culpeper County sold John Rector 62 acres in Brumfield Parish in the great fork of the Rappahannock on head branch of Crooked Run corner to Charles Taylor and land formerly belonging to Thornton.  On 4 May 1776 John Ructor and Rebeccy his wife of Culpeper sold 60 acres beginning at Thornton's corner at Littleton Taylor's spring.  Both signed with a mark.  This is the last record of John and Rebecca in either Fauquier or Culpeper County records.

On 4 March 1831 Benjamin Rector, Iredell County, North Carolina, filed an application for a Revolutionary War Pension.  He stated in part "that he was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in the year 1761 . . . [and] that he entered [1779] as a Substitute for his father John Rector in Surry County under Capt. Jacob Camplin."

It would appear that John Rector [Jr.], son of John Rector (died 1742), moved to Surry County sometime between 1776, when he sold his Culpeper land, and 1779 when his son Benjamin served as his substitute in a North Carolina regiment.  No other children besides his son Benjamin have been identified to date.  Benjamin moved to Iredell County ca. 1789 and died in Alexander County, North Carolina, on 11 February 1849.  His second wife, Nancy Fendley/Finley, whom he married in Iredell County on 9 October 1806, survived him.

Why John moved to Culpeper and later North Carolina has not been determined.  A closer look at his mother or the identification of his wife might provide clues to his migration.

B. C. Holtzclaw stated that John, Jr., had a second wife, Mary, that he left a will of 1815 recorded in Fauquier County, Virginia, and that he had nine children.  These facts could not apply to the John, Jr., whose history, including his move to North Carolina, is detailed here.  They must apply to another John Rector.  John P. Alcock has identified this previously undetected and different John Rector [Beyond Germanna, v.8, n.2, p.432].

Barbara Vines Little used many land records to trace the path of John Rector, Jr.  In her article in Beyond Germanna, she cited eighteen references to fortify her research.

[This Thursday morning, Eleanor and I are starting for East Tennessee to be there on Saturday for the East Tennessee Germanna Reunion.  It will be sometime next week before the Notes resume.]
(08 Sep 05)

(Continuing with the John Rector discussion.)

In the previous two Notes, we have examined Barbara Vines Little's research which found that a certain John Rector was actually two separate John Rectors.  She identified the one which moved to North Carolina with his wife Rebecca.  This John Rector was the son of the 1734 immigrant.

John Alcock, in the same issue of Beyond Germanna, identified the other John Rector.  The present Note will clarify his identity.  The language is taken from John Alcock's Note on page 432 of Beyond Germanna.

"How does the one [John Rector] who married Mary fit into the Rector lineage chart?  As I will show below, he is the son of Harman Rector, Sr., and thus a grandson of John Rector, the 1714 immigrant.

"In the 1759 tithable list for the district which included Germantown, Harmon Rector has four tithes:  Himself, John Rictor, Harman Rictor (Jr.), and one slave.  In 1778, the next extant list that included the Germantown area, only Harman Rector was named, but both Harmon, Sr., and John are there in 1781, and John continued there at least until 1810.  He died in Fauquier in 1815.  Until 1799 when his son joined him, he was the only John Rector on the tax list for that part of the county.  In the 1777 quit rent roll he is distinguished as John Rector G.T. (of Germantown).  The land John and Rebecca Rector sold was some miles northwest of Germantown in another tax district, where the tax records before 1777 have been lost.

"John Rector, the son of Harman, Sr., can safely said to have been born about 1740 from his position on the 1759 tithable tax list under his father Harman, Sr., and above his brother, Harman, Jr.  He made his first purchase of land in 1765, probably about the time of his marriage.  He had six sons and three daughters.  I can't tell whether his wife Mary, who relinquished her dower rights to land sold in 1795 and 1796, was the mother of all or any of them.  She died before her husband did.

"We know from the will of Harman Rector, ,. that he had three sons.  We now have identified John and Harman, Jr.  An analysis of who the third son might have been will be the subject of a later article in this series."
(13 Sep 05)

(Continuing with the John Rector discussion.)

Within the Germanna family there are two branches of Rectors corresponding to two male immigrants of that name.  The second and younger immigrant was John Rector who, at age 26, arrived at Philadelphia September 23, 1734, on the ship Hope with 19 other Nassau-Siegen colonists.  This John Rector probably married a daughter of John and Mary Spilman of the 1714 group.  He died in 1742 and left a young family [including John, Jr., whom recent Notes have discussed].  B. C. Holtzclaw thought that this John Rector was a nephew of the 1714 immigrant, John Jacob Rector [see Germanna Record 4, page 78f].  From an examination of the Church Records in Nassau-Siegen, it is not possible to infer any relationship between John Rector and John Jacob Rector, even though the surname and the point of origination suggest there may have been one.  [This material is being taken from an article in Beyond Germanna by James F. McJohn on page 194.]

Dr. Holtzclaw very correctly observes that birth records of 1707 or 1708 could apply to John Rector.  Only one is found:  "Johann Jacob Richter was born March 31, 1707.  His father was Joerge Henrich Richter and his mother was Anna Maria.  The godfather was Johann Jacob Druepler, single."  [This information comes from the Siegen District Church Office on August 8, 1977.]

Dr. Holtzclaw identified the father above, Joerge Henrich Richter, as the Henrich Richter who was born the 6th Sunday after Trinity in 1681.  This identification is probably based on the age, which would be about right, and the common occurrence of the name Henrich; however, there exists the following marriage record:  "Joerge Richter and Anna Maria Druepler were married on July 20, 1706.  The groom's father was Christoff Richter, formerly a citizen of Magdeburg, footsoldier in the royal palace guard at Siegen.  The bride's father was Daniel Druepler, citizen of Siegen."  [From the same church office.]

It is extremely probable that this marriage record pertains to John Rector's parents.  The most telling factor is that Johann Jacob Druepler was a godfather for John Rector.  This name ties the marriage to the birth.  The godfather was probably the mother's unmarried brother.  Dr. Holtzclaw assigned a Hermann as the father of Heinrich, who was equated to Joerge Heinrich.  The Church Records do not support this.

Joerge Richter, married July 20, 1706, has not been identified yet as being related to the 1714 Richter, Johann Jacob.  Since Joerge Richter's father was formerly a citizen of Magdeburg, where Joerge himself may have been born, very positive evidence would be needed to assert that the Rector branches are related.
(14 Sep 05)

(Continuing with the Rector discussion, especially of John Rector who came to Virginia in 1734 and died not many years later.)

The John Jacob Rector who came in 1714 had a father named Christopher.  The later John Rector had a grandfather whose name was also Christopher, but the dates do not work out very well to equate the two.  Furthermore, the origin of the John Rector's family in Magdeburg does not suggest a connection.  And the occupations of the two Christophers are not satisfactory.  Until more evidence is found, the two Rector branches in Germanna should be regarded as independent.

Quoting James McJohn, who wrote the article in Beyond Germanna, "Anna Maria Dripler was born in 1685, exact date not recorded, at Siegen and was baptized at the Evangelical [Reformed] Church in Siegen on December 13, 1685.  Her father was Daniel Dripler and her mother was Anna Barbara.  The godmother was Anna Maria, daughter of Herman Druepler."

James McJohn credits William H. Rector for obtaining photocopies of the Church Records and acknowledges the assistance of the Siegen District Church Office for a statement dated August 8, 1977.

In other upcoming notes, we will examine some other problems in the Rector history.  For example, where does Uriah Rector fit into the picture?

Suzanne Matson relates another problem in Rector history:  "A Rev. Lewis Rector settled in Greenville County, South Carolina, before 1800, perhaps about 1795 based on Church Minutes.  It is not known how he fits into the Germanna Richters.  He married Elizabeth Green, daughter of George Green and Elizabeth Underwood.  The Green family has been proven by DNA studies to be related to the Duff Green line of Fauquier County.  A sister of Elizabeth is Alice who is a 3g-grandmother of mine.  Alice married Stephen Holtzclaw."

(Continuing with the Rector discussion.)

Uriah Rector had, until recently, not been placed in any family.  He had been assigned to the family of Harmon, the son of the 1714 immigrant John Jacob Rector, but there was no evidence to support this; it was a default.  Other individuals have a better claim than Uriah.  Harmon Rector's will mentioned one son by name and referred to my three sons.  The question was whether the named son was one of the three sons.  By a strict reading, the named son would be one of the three sons.  But if the named son were not one of three, there would be room for Uriah.

Tommie Brittain studied the history of Uriah and found that he was often associated with another Rector, a Maximillian, who would seem to be a brother.  It would be impossible to fit two men into the family of Harmon whether there were three or four children.  So Tommie's research cast doubt on the placement of Uriah in the family of Harmon, though it provided no information about where he should be placed.

Uriah Rector was born about 1756 according to his later pension application (W7135) and Maximillian was born a couple of years later according to his pension application (W2002).  Uriah joined the company of Capt. John Ashby in the regiment of Col. Thomas Marshall in the line of the State of Virginia in the Continental Establishment in 1776.  He suffered by getting his left knee joint out of place and was discharged at the end of two years.  Maximillian joined the same company as did Uriah.  He served at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.  Later he was taken prisoner at the siege of Charleston and marched to Greenville, SC, where he remained until the war was over.

According to an unconfirmed report, Uriah married Elizabeth Hill on 9 April 1777.  That his wife was an Elizabeth is noted in two deeds recorded 22 June 1778.  In both, Uriah and Elizabeth sold property on Goose Creek which had been purchased by John Rector, deceased, from Burgess Ball of Lancaster Co., VA.  Neighbors to the parcels included George Glasscock, William Turley, John Kincheloe, and John Peyson Harrison.  There were no witnesses to either deed.  There are no Land Records in Fauquier for Maximillian.

In 1778, Uriah Rector is on the personal property tax list of Hezekiah Turner in the Northeast District of Fauquier Co.  In the next year, Uriah is indicted for gambling.  From 1781 to 1786, Uriah appears each year as a tithable in Botetourt Co., VA.  T. B. Kegley lists Uriah in page 465 of "Virginia�s Frontier, 1745-1783" with one horse, no cattle, no tithables, and an uncertain slave ownership status.  In 1786, Maximillian appears in Botetourt Co. as witness to the marriage of John Rector and Chloe McPherson on 29 September.

(To be continued.)
(16 Sep 05)

(Continuing with the Rector discussion.)

Uriah and Maximillian Rector disappeared from sight for a period of time (see previous Note).  Eventually, though, they appear in Tennessee.  Uriah Rector and Joseph Robinson lost a lawsuit in Jefferson County Co., TN, in the period 1792 to 1795.  In this same period and county, Uriah sold a slave boy to Peter Fine.  He is listed as a purchaser of the estate of John Ward in Jefferson Co.  In 1797 he was a customer of Peter Fine located on French Broad River on the old site of the town called New Fort in the Knoxville area ("The French Broad", p.56).  In 1798 and 1799, there was a series of lawsuits in Fauquier Co., VA, involving Uriah Rector, Abraham Furr, and Edward Shacklett (Minute Book 1797-8, p.519 and Minute Book 1798-9, p.9 and p.436).

In 1803, Uriah was in Washington Co., TN.  A mystery occurs in 1805 when Uriah married Winifred Unknown in South Carolina as we have no reason why Uriah would go there to find a wife.  Perhaps it was related to the time that Maximillian spent as a prisoner of war in SC.  Uriah and Winifred moved to Roane Co., TN.  On 21 Feb 1807, in Washington Co., TN, Uriah sold 100 acres to James Whillock (Whitlock?) on a branch of Horse Creek for $300.  Witnesses were George Kincheloe and Elizabeth Robison.  Still in Washington Co., on 16 March 1812, James Dunn, having a Power of Attorney from Uriah Rector of Jefferson Co., TN, dated 13 Jan 1806, sells 100 acres on a branch of Horse Creek.  Witnesses were J. MaCarrole(?), Enoch Whillock, and John Kaebler.  The book, "Tennessee Cousins", lists Uriah Rector from Virginia on p. 453.

On 8 Sept 1823, Uriah Rector, age about 67 years, made a pension application from Roane Co., TN.  He had a wife aged about 42 and three children (two daughters, aged 13 and 9, and one son, aged 2 years).  The pension was approved.  Uriah died in Roane Co., TN, in 1833 and he is buried in Old Post Oak Cemetery at Rockwood, TN.  Uriah's widow, Winifred, made a widow's pension application on 5 Dec 1854 from Williamson Co., Illinois.  She said she was 78 years old and had married Uriah Rector in Grinville (Greenville?) Co., South Carolina.  As best she could remember, the year was 1805 and the minister was Isaiah Lemon.  They moved to Roane Co. in TN where they lived until Uriah's death about 5 October 1833.  She lived with her daughter, Nancy Rector Harris.  Her son, William Rector also lived in Illinois.  Orison Harris and William Rector gave supporting testimony.  On 31 March 1855, Winifred Rector, 78 made an application for Bounty Land.

Tommie Brittain has a tentative list of children for Uriah but she emphasizes the uncertainties:

By Elizabeth:
    Landon, b. 1778 in Fauquier Co., VA;
    John, b. 1780 in Fauquier Co., VA; and
    Richard, b. 1785 (he was in the War of 1812).

By Winifred:
    Uriah, Jr., b. 1800-1810;
    Nancy, b. 1810;
    Elizabeth, b. 1814; and
    William, b.  1821.

Maximillian Rector (see the previous two Notes) was born two years after Uriah and served in the same company as Uriah did during the Revolution.  Maximillian had ties to South Carolina resulting from his service in the Revolution.  He was in Botetourt Co. at the same time as Uriah and ended up in Tennessee where Uriah also lived.  Maximillian was listed in the 1800 Tax List for Jefferson Co., TN.  Earlier, he had granted a Power of Attorney there to James Molin in the period 1792 to 1795.  He was in the Greene Co., TN, List in 1804.  There are mentions in James L. Southat, "Jefferson Co., TN, Will Book I, 1792-1810":  Uriah in 1796, Maximillian in 1797, Uriah in 1797.  Maximillian was named as a juror in Roane Co., TN, in 1816 and in 1818.

On 25 March 1827, Maximillian entered for 160 acres of land in McMinn Co., TN.  Grant No. 1976 was issued 6 Dec 1830 to the North East quarter of Section 32, Township 3, Range 1, west of the Meridian, in the county of McMinn, Hiwassee district.  Three years later, when aged 72, he filed for a pension from McMinn Co., TN.  Mary, his wife of 67 years, was infirm with rheumatism.  Maximillian also cared for one free woman of color (and her child) who helped to care for Mary.  Maximillian stated he tried to farm but was too infirm.  John Arnwine and Charles Matlock supported his testimony.  In 1845, Maximillian sold land for ten dollars to "colored Rector man" who was to take care of his mother.  (Other slaves are said to have been freed in Ohio.)

It is possible that they were cousins or even unrelated, but it seems more likely that Uriah and Maximillian were brothers who shared experiences in life.

The families of Uriah and Maximillian are uncertain.  Other Rectors who are found in the vicinity of Maximillian are Elijah, b. 1790/1800, and in the 1830 Franklin Co., TN, Census; Sarah, b. 1787 in VA, and in Maximillian's home in the 1850 Census; David, b. 1788/1789 in VA, and dead by 1823 in McMinn Co., TN, with Sarah as his administrator; Patsy Rector, b. 1800 in TN, and in the home of Maximillian on the 1850 Census of McMinn Co., TN; Silas Rector, age 40/50 in McMinn Co., TN, in 1830; Harvey Rector, b. 1824 in TN, and on the 1850 Census with Maximillian; and Wiley Rector.

On 4 Sept 1845, Maximillian married Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Detheroe, the widow of John, in McMinn Co., TN.  In the 1850 Census, the Maximillian Rector household consisted of him, 85; of Elizabeth, 60; Harvey, 26; and Patsy, 50.  (Some of these ages do not agree with other testimony.)

On 8 April 1853, Mary Elizabeth Rector, 85, widow of Maximillian Rector, applied for a pension as the widow of a Rev. War soldier.  Her testimony was supported five days later by James Forest and William S. Calloway.  On 29 June 1853, Jacob Detherow and Nancy Detherow testified as to Mary Elizabeth Rector's death.
(20 Sep 05)

The solution to the parentage (at least of the father) of Uriah Rector was found by John P. Alcock, a major researcher of the Fauquier County, Virginia, records.  John is not a Rector descendant, but his wife is.  John wrote to me,

"Since it was snowing this morning [March 19, 1997], I went over to the courthouse instead of working outdoors.  I paid particular attention to the "loose" papers in the Fauquier Co. Courthouse which have been catalogued and indexed.  I was especially drawn to the name Rector but without any unusual finds.  When I finished, I called my wife Mariana to say I was on my way home for lunch, but there was no answer.  So I said to myself, 'I will take only a few minutes to look at the Chancery Indexes.'  I turned to the index of plaintiffs and my eye caught the name Uriah Rector as defendant to John Peyton Harrison.  That was no accident; it was only one page out of perhaps two hundred.  Finally, a little bit of luck was with me as the case identifies Uriah Rector's parentage.  You can follow the details in the copies which I am enclosing.  The originals are ID 204 in Box 4, 1792-item 007."

John Peyton Harrison filed a complaint on 15 April 1784 against Uriah Rector, the eldest son and heir at law to John Rector who had been "killed by thunder" before he made a deed for his sale to Harrison of the lot on which John Clark then lived.  (Probably this lot adjoined the lots which Uriah sold to Glascock and Neavil, as there is no recorded deed on this lot.)  Uriah refused to honor the bond of his father that the formal conveyance would be completed.  Uriah said Harrison had not paid for the tract.  The bond is dated 15 April 1773.

The John Rector who was killed by thunder was the son of John Rector and the grandson of the 1714 immigrant Hans Jacob Richter.  John, Jr., died before the end of June 1773, when administration of his estate was granted to William Kincheloe [was he a relative?].  John Rector, Sr., had died before the end of March 1773, leaving 100 acres to his grandson, John, who would have been a brother of Uriah.

The sheriff was ordered to bring Uriah into court to answer the complaint, but he could not be found as he was no longer resident in Fauquier.  A final decree was issued in August, but no copy was in the file.

[The material in the last three notes was reported in Beyond Germanna on pages 504 and 505 (vol. 9, n. 3, May 1997).]
(21 Sep 05)

Neither B. C. Holtzclaw in "The Germanna Record Number Four" nor Larry King in "Rector Records" gives any information about the first wife of Bennett Rector, the son of Jacob, and the grandson of Hans Jacob Richter, the 1714 immigrant to Virginia.  No information is said to be known about where and when Bennett Rector died.

Brenda J. Thomas submitted a note to Beyond Germanna (p. 667, v.12, n.1) which helps to clarify these questions.  She notes there is a letter from W. H. Rector to Gov. H. M. Rector of Arkansas, dated 8 Nov 1850, in which he was attempting to see if he and Gov. Rector had a common ancestry.  The letter is in the Oldham Collection at the Arkansas History Commission as item 10.  W. H. (William Huff, though he never identified himself in the letter as such) Rector wrote from Nashville, Hempstead County, Arkansas.

Items which W. H. Rector mentions from his family history are that his grandfather was Bennett and his great-grandfather was Jacob.  His grandfather Bennett had two brothers, James and Jesse.  These facts are correct as far as we understand the Rector history.  W. H. also mentions that his great-uncles, James and Jesse, served in the Revolutionary War and were at Yorktown.  He adds that his grandfather, Bennett, married ____ Glasscock (or Glascock) and moved to Grayson Co. on the New River where he raised his first family.  After his first wife died, he remarried and moved to East Tennessee where he died.

W. H. Rector is in the 1860 census from Hempstead Co., Arkansas (Mine Creek Township), where he is given as 40, born in TN, and as a merchant.  His wife was Augusta M. (Cox), age 33, born in TN.  Four children are listed, Martha, 11; George L., 9; Eliza P.,7; and Cordelia, 1.  Except for Cordelia who was born in Texas, the children were born in Tennessee.  In 1861, Jesse was born to make a total of five children.  The family moved from Tennessee to Texas and in 1858 moved to Arkansas.
(22 Sep 05)

Evelyn Rector Schmidt wrote in the March 2000 issue of Beyond Germanna (page 679) of her search for Cumberland Rector, who was not identified correctly by Dr. Salmans, Dr. Holtzclaw, or Larry King.  Taking Larry King's "Rector Records" as an example, there is no Cumberland in the index.  After a long search with excellent help, Ms. Schmidt compiled a chronology of Cumberland Rector.

Cumberland was born ca 1774 to Charles and Elizabeth ( ___ ) Rector in Fauquier County, Virginia.  Cumberland was in Baird's Company of the Knox County Regiment in the Hamilton District Militia for the Territory South of the Ohio in the period after the Revolutionary War.  In 1794, a daughter, Mary ("Polly") was born to Cumberland and his wife, whose name is not known.  A son, Landon, was born 4 Feb 1798.  Cumberland signed a petition prior to 29 Sep 1801 asking for the creation of Gallatin (later called Roane) County.  Presumably, as a signer of the petition, he was living in what was then Knox Co., Tennessee.

Cumberland was called for jury duty in 1801, 1802, and 1803 in Roane Co.  He appears on the Gax Lists of 1805 and 1808, and perhaps in 1802.  A son, Charles, was born in 1804.  George Preston deeded 30 acres on 7 Jan 1804 to Cumberland Rector of Roane Co.  The land was located on Hines Valley Creek.  A witness was Joseph Looney.

Mary Rector married James Bailey on 17 Feb 1810 in Roane Co., and she was given as a daughter of Cumberland Rector.  This family moved to Missouri in about 1837.  In 1812 Cumberland Rector of Roane Co. bought 500 acres in Rhea Co.  In about this same year, Charlotte was born.  Cumberland enlisted 5 Oct 1813 as a private under Col. John Brown and Capt. James Preston, in the East Tennessee Militia Regiment.  In 1819, 1825, and 1829 Cumberland was listed with 350 acres.  In 1825, Landon Rector paid taxes on 150 acres located on Piney River.

In 1828, Charlotte Rector married Wm. H. Stockton.  In the next year, Charles Rector appears on the 1829 Tax List for one poll and no land.  The 1830 Rhea Co. Census data taken for Cumberland shows one male (5-10), 2 males (15-20), one male (40-50), and one female (15-20).  Cumberland sold 82 acres in 1833 to Archelaus Vaughn.  In 1833 also, the Tax List shows Cumberland with 350 acres, Wm. Rector with no land and one poll, and the same for Charles Rector and Landon Rector (on Piney River), with one poll but no land.  In 1835 Malinda Rector (born ca 1815 according to the 1850 Census) married Hezekiah McPherson on 14 Nov.  The couple moved very soon to Missouri, where their first child, Hardin, was born.

(To be continued)
(23 Sep 05)

(Continuing with the story of Cumberland Rector and his descendants.)

In 1840, the Rhea Co., TN, Census shows Cumberland Rector with one male (30-40) and a second male (60-70), but no females.  In 1841 Cumberland Rector, along with Charles and Noah Rector, attended the sale in Roane Co. of John Jackson who had married Jane Preston.  Her father, James Preston, had married the sister of Cumberland, Charlotte Rector.  Also in the year 1841, Cumberland married Mrs. Sarah Buster on 19 Aug in Meigs Co.

In 1842 Cumberland began to sell land to his sons-in-law, Wm. H. Stockton and Hezekiah McPherson.  More land was sold to McPherson in 1845.  (Cumberland's wife sold land also in 1850 to McPherson.)  Cumberland wrote his will on 22 Oct 1845.  It was probated during the March session of court in 1849.  McPherson, as administrator, made the final return in the September session of 1850.

It should also be noted that a Wm. Rector was on the Tax List and in the Census for 1840 without a wife.  Probably it was this man who married Catherine Peters 2 Feb 1841, and perhaps he should be considered as a candidate for another son.

When a comparison is made to the three compilations cited in the first paragraph, it will be noted that there are a number of differences.  I have not found that Cumberland Rector ever appeared with another name.  A comparison with Landel Rector (4-93 in Rector Records) does not fare well with the facts that are cited here, though there are points of agreement.

Ms. Schmidt, the author of the comments in Beyond Germanna, hopes that her work will benefit others without an assumption that her work was exhaustive.

[As an outsider to Rector research and history, I was struck by the name Cumberland.  It seems to me to be an unusual name and one wonders what the source for it.  Does anyone know?  John B.]
(26 Sep 05)

James F. McJohn wrote a short note for Beyond Germanna (page 206) discussing the parents of Lucinda Rector.  He wrote:

"Dr. B. C. Holtzclaw in Germanna Record 4 assigns Lucinda Rector to the family of Moses Rector or of William Rector in uncertainty (p. 55f).  In Germanna Record 5, Dr. Holtzclaw defaults Lucinda to perhaps being a daughter of William Rector (p. 445f).  Actually Lucinda Rector was the daughter of Joel Rector.  "Nathaniel and Samuel Rector were appointed administrators of the estate of Joel Rector in Campbell County, Kentucky, on December 24, 1838.  Joel Rector's slaves and personal property were appraised at $5,886.40 on January 4, 1839.  On 15 December 1845 an agreement was reached for the heirs of Joel Rector to sell a parcel of land.  The sellers were:

Nathaniel Rector
Samuel Rector
Enoch Banister and his wife Polly Rector
Thomas Moffett and his wife Catherine Rector
Benjamin Northcutt and his wife Sarah Rector
    (the above were from the County of Kenton)
Henry Northcutt and his wife Elizabeth Rector
    (of the County of Grant)
Daniel Moffett and his wife Lucinda Rector
    (of the County of Edgar in Illinois)

"Marriage records for the children of Joel Rector include:

Polly Rector to Enoch Bannister, 7 Nov 1814, in Fauquier Co., VA
Lucinda Rector to Daniel Moffett, 24 Mar 1817, in Fauquier Co., VA
Nathaniel Rector to Louisa Garrett, 29 Dec 1823, in Kentucky
Samuel Rector to Martha M. Garrett, 15 Jan 1827 in Kentucky
Catherine Rector to Benjamin Northcutt, 3 Sept 1828, in Kentucky
Betsey Rector to Henry Northcutt, 27 Mar 1828, in Kentucky

"One good source for material about Joel Rector and his daughter Lucinda is Thomas H. Woodyard's "A Hanna Moffett Sims Hybarger History", Riverton, Wyoming, 1980."

All genealogy researchers should take note of the recent Rector mini-series.  Fifteen years ago there was a general consensus, fortified by the research of several major researchers, on the Rector genealogy.  In the last fifteen years, so much has been found correcting the Rector history that one wonders how accurate any genealogy is.

Not many years ago, researchers had given John Rector, the son of the 1714 immigrant, Johann Jacob Richter, only one wife.  Now it appears that he had two wives, and the second wife, previously unknown, was probably the mother of most of the children.  Another son, Henry, of the immigrant had the wrong wife.  Since there were four children of Johann Jacob Richter, it would appear that more than one-half of the Rector descendants had an inaccuracy in their genealogy, especially since John and Henry had the largest families.

There is a need for an updated and corrected Rector history.  There is a lot of previous work to be drawn upon but another corrected and documented work would be desirable.

For other families, note that the correction in the wives of two of the four sons of Johann Jacob Richter depended on one set of papers which might have remained hidden had they not been found by John Gott.  In your family, what is the chance that a piece of paper that would alter your history remains to be discovered?  Or even more disturbing, what if a correction or alteration in your history has never been discovered because it was never documented?

I have made the point in talks that genealogy is probabilities.  One can never be too certain about one's history.  The paper trails are incomplete and inaccurate, though one should never ignore the paper trail, nor give up on searching for evidence.  Someday, better estimates will probably be made by DNA studies.  At least, these studies will raise flags of warning.

In publishing Beyond Germanna, I was able to carry more articles concerning the Rectors than any other family.  This is not because there were more errors in the Rectors, but there were more researchers at work on the Rector family.
(28 Sep 05)

It is interesting to see how the ancestors of our Germanna immigrants were dispersed in Europe.  For example, the Blankenbaker family emigrated to America from Neuenbuerg, Kreis Kraichtal (not to be confused with Kraichgau), in what is now Germany.  This is near the Rhine River.  The male line of the family can be definitely traced to Gresten, Austria, in the 1600 time frame.  This is a large geographical distance by the standards of that day.  The reason for the move to the west appears to be religious, but other reasons are possibilities.  Just because a family moved, it should not be assumed that it was for religious reasons.

I believe that the Scheible family followed a similar path to the Blankenbakers' moving from Austria to western Germany.  This is not a proven fact, but the circumstantial evidence supports the idea.  The Plankenbichl farm is about one-half mile from the Scheiblau farm in Austria.  Both Blankenbakers and Scheibles were found at Neuenbuerg.  George Scheible had his land patent in the midst of the Blankenbakers and their close kin in Virginia.  These kinds of associations are very powerful.

Perhaps the Kaefer (K�fer) family made a similar move, but the evidence, even circumstantial, is weak.  John Nicholas Blankenbaker married Apollonia Kaefer in Germany.  What is unusual about this is that they were not near neighbors.  Neuenbuerg and Zaberfeld were about eleven miles apart (the home villages of the groom and the bride).  This is not a common event unless the two families were acquainted with each other.  The name Kaefer is still found today in Gresten, Austria, and I suspect a branch of the Kaefers emigrated with the Blankenbakers and the Scheibles from Austria to Germany.

The male ancestors of the Andreas Gaar family can be traced rigorously back to Kolmbach, a farm in the extreme southeast corner of Bavaria, Germany.  This is only about fifteen miles from the Austrian border.  Members of the Gaar/Garr family in Germany today believe that the family did originate in Austria.  Francis Hieronymus married Elisabeth Rector (John, John, Jacob).  He said he was from Vienna, Austria.  Vienna may be a better-known substitution for a lesser known village.

I suspect that there were other people from Austria who immigrated to the Colonies from Germany, having originally come to Germany from Austria, but I have not proved it.  Saying that the Blankenbakers, Scheibles, Kaefers, and Gaars were Austrian is a bit misleading because these are male lines and the Austrian emigrants to Germany married Germans.  In the next Note, let�s note the families with a strain of Swiss ancestors.  Your contributions are invited. (04 Nov 05)

One member of the Second Germanna Colony was not born in Germany; he was born in Switzerland.  The man was Hans Heerensperger who became John Harnsberger in Virginia (or Hansberger and other variations).  Hans Heerensperger was the seventh child of Jacob Heerensperger, born 1648, and his wife Maria Hoerndlin, born c. 1655.  The births of seven children of this couple are recorded in the parish book for the Reformed Church in Bussnang.  Hans Heerensperger was born 1 April 1688 in Affeltrangen, Thurgau, Switzerland.

The story of John Harnsberger and his early descendants was told in "Beyond Germanna" by Wanda Miller Cunningham.  She graciously gave credit to Robert Torkelson for the information about the Swiss origins of John Harnsberger (and she gave credit to the late John Hansberger for information about other family members in America).  One wonders, and it is only a wonder, whether Hans Heerensperger, as the seventh child, felt that his opportunities in Switzerland were limited by his position in the family, and so emigrated.  What we do not know is whether Hans Heersenperger moved to Germany and lived there a while before leaving for America, or whether he emigrated directly from Switzerland to America.

There were many emigrants from Switzerland to Germany in the last half of the Seventeenth Century.  There were economic opportunities created by the death of so many Germans in the Thirty Years War.  Second, the Anabaptists in Switzerland were still being persecuted severely, and many left for the better security in France and Germany.  Some were forcibly encouraged to leave Switzerland.  Though Hans Heerensperger was not an Anabaptist, the flow of Reformed and Anabaptists to Germany may have suggested to him to move to Germany.

Some of the citizens of Sulzfeld in Germany had Swiss ancestors.  The Zimmermann family originated in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland.  Michael Zimmermann, a native of Steffisburg, migrated from there to Sulzfeld, Baden, Germany, before 1665, with his wife Benedicta.  She was the mother of his children, but she died in Sulzfeld and he married Elisabetha Albrecht, the widow of Hans Lehmann of Steffisburg, on 1 May 1666.  More details about the Zimmermann family are told by Gary Zimmerman (no relation) and Johni Cerny in "Before Germanna".

Though I personally am not a descendant of the Zimmermans, this story of the emigration of the Zimmermanns is of special interest to me.  My son-in-law, Robert Killheffer, descends from a line of Anabaptists who lived in Steffisburg in Switzerland.  This again suggests there were influences between the emigration of the Reformed people and the Anabaptists in Switzerland.  (In Sulzfeld, the Zimmermanns attended the Lutheran church.) (07 Nov 05)

I have heard it said, but I can�t vouch for it, that the ancestry of Christopher Yowell (UHL in Germany) included Swiss ancestry.  The source for this was said to be the Sulzfeld Ortssippenbuch which a few of you have.  If you could cite the information, either positively or negatively, it would be appreciated.

There is a strain of Swiss ancestry in Anna Maria Hengsteler, the wife of Michael Willheit, early immigrants to Virginia.  One grandmother of Anna Maria Hengsteler, Salome Metzger, was the daughter of Sebastian Metzger of Altdorf, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Again, if anyone can add to this list of Germanna immigrants who have a partial Swiss ancestry, please do so.

Next, we might discuss those Germanna immigrants whose ancestry involves people who have moved a significant distance within Germany.  Of course, "significant" is not a well-defined term so we will be casual about the definition.

The earliest known Rector (Richter) was Hans Richter from the city of Freiburg, near Meissen in Saxony (see Germanna Record 5 for the Rector-Richter family).  The surmise is that Hans Richter was born about the year 1550.  Hans paid a fee for citizenship in Siegen in 1585 showing that he was not born there.  His birth information in the citizenship application gives us the information above.

Cyriacus Fleischmann was from Klings and he moved to Neuenbuerg where he married the widow Anna Barbara (Schoen/Sch�n) Blankenbaker Schlucter.  Klings was, in recent years, in East Germany, being just over the border (not far from Luther country around Eisenach).  If you visit Klings today, you will find that the most common name in the cemetery is Fleischmann.

Apparently Nicholas Yager (Jaeger) moved from Hesse to the Palatinate.  There is ongoing active research into this question, but at the present it seems that this was true.

John Broyles (Johannes Breyhel) was born at Dusslingen (Du�lingen) and married at Oetisheim (�tisheim), some distance apart.  The distance was more than would be appropriate for courting, suggesting that he had moved to Oetisheim. (08 Nov 05)

For the record, there is no known evidence at the present time that the UHL family of Sulzfeld came from, or had, Swiss ancestors.  Christopher Uhl left Sulzfeld in 1717, but he was one of those who was delayed in London and he did not arrive in Virginia until 1719.  Whether he is a member of the Second Colony is a moot point.

That our Germanna history in Germany may be more complex that we had thought was certainly brought home to me when Eleanor and I visited the cemetery in Lonnerstadt.  Lonnerstadt is a small village northwest of Nuernberg in Bavaria.  Our attention had been drawn to it in 2000 because of the fifteen Blankenbuehlers in Germany, five of them live in Lonnerstadt.  The village is not far, by our standards, from Dietenhofen, to where so many people emigrated from Gresten, Austria.

As we walked around the cemetery, I was struck by the number of Germanna names.  In no other cemetery in Germany had I seen so many.  The names that I saw included Blankenbuehler (Blankenbaker), Hieronymus, Lang, Marr, Motz, Thoma (Thomas), and Wieland (Wayland).  We know that the Blankenbuehlers originated in Austria.  The Hieronymus family also claims an origin in Austria.

It may be a coincidence to find all of these names in one cemetery.  Some of the names are common, but I continue to be amazed.  And I believe that more research in Austria might be profitable.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to do so because of the upheaval in the churches there in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.  Many church records have been lost and the civil records seem to be in the hands of private parties.

I later found out that in addition to the fifteen Blankenbuehlers in the phone book, there are a few Plankenbuehlers who have adopted the original Austrian initial letter spelling.  It is also interesting that the majority of the Blankenbuehlers have not moved from the points where they first settled in Germany after emigrating from Austria.

Some names in Germany are widely distributed but others show a strong regional bias.  The Steinseifer family, for example, seems to be centered, even today, around Siegen with only a limited distribution in other parts of Germany.  The Gaar/Garr/Gar/Gahr family is centered in the southeastern corner of Bavaria (and Germany).

So our origins are not simple.  Someday, with the benefit of DNA studies, we may be able to make broader assertions. (09 Nov 05)

When we look at the movements of the Germanna ancestors, or at the general migration patterns in the Germanic areas, we see that it peaked in the Seventeenth Century (the 1600's).  Of course, the most significant event of the Seventeenth Century was the Thirty Years War, from 1618 to 1648.  Why was the migration so heavy in the Seventeenth Century?

One reason, but not the dominant reason, was religious.  As a result of the war, there were realignments of the religious patterns.  This was the most noticeable in Austria, where Protestantism was the dominant religion in 1600.  By the end of the war, the official religion of the state was Catholicism.  The Austrian Kaiser decreed that those who did not wish to be Catholics had to leave, and many Austrians did leave.  Though the religious question was significant, it was not the major factor in the resettlement of people.

A more powerful factor was the economic destruction caused by the war.  Vast areas were left underpopulated, with empty fields, barns, and houses.  Now a ruler�s income depends, to a large measure, on the number of people paying taxes.  With a reduced population, his income declined.  To build up his tax collections, he invited people to move into his area and offered them land.  Some regions had a surplus of people and the invitation to relocate to less populous areas was well received.

These appeals were well received in Switzerland which had suffered little during the war due their neutrality.  Many Swiss Reformed members and Anabaptists took advantage of the chance to secure a better economic base.  In the case of the Anabaptists, there was a strong pressure by the Swiss state and the Swiss Reformed Church to expel the Anabaptists.  Thus, we find Anabaptists such as Hans Herr living on the Unterbiegelhof farm which abuts on the back of the Wagenbach farm where the Utz family and the Folg family lived.

Another relocation factor was the need for specific skills.  Some German areas were low lying and swampy.  Some rulers sought people who were knowledgeable about draining and diking lands to reduce the water level to make productive fields.

The lands in southwest Germany, in Wuerttemberg, Baden, and The Palatinate, were repopulated.  By 1700 the vacant land between villages had become the bone of contention between adjacent villages as the expanding families needed land for their children.  Another factor, war, entered the considerations of the inhabitants by 1700.

William Penn had been recruiting Germans for his lands in Pennsylvania since 1680.  Excepting for one small group which formed Germantown (now in Philadelphia), there had been no emigration to the English colonies.  By 1709, there many good reasons for emigration to America, but little had taken place.  Why? (10 Nov 05)

I used the name FOLG in the last Note and I wish now that I had used VOLCK in its place.  I could have added to the list of reasons that people had for emigrating by 1710, the sad state of political affairs in Nassau-Siegen, where two rulers of opposite faiths used the same town as their base.  The conflict between the two was so strong that the economic health of the region was very sick.

By 1709, there were good reasons for emigration throughout Germany, and there had been for several years.  Yet there had been no emigration to America in spite of the offer of William Penn to sell land cheaply with a free exercise of religion.  When one looks at the situation in the Kraichgau, for example, the invasions by the French had been very destructive.  This is confirmed by the state of the Church books where so many were lost and had to be started anew.

Land was becoming very scarce and those who "owned" land were hard pressed to divide it into viable units to give to their children.  The rulers were trying to raise taxes and the conflicts between the rulers and the "citizens" were increasing.  It had been about thirty years since Penn had started recruiting people, yet his efforts had been remarkably unsuccessful.  Today, we might wonder why his efforts had not yielded more than the relatively small group who founded Germantown (now in Philadelphia).

When one studies the situation more closely, it will be found that people were emigrating, but not to America.  A significant number were moving east overland.  What they were not doing was moving west over the Atlantic Ocean.  The feeling against moving west was very strong for a number of reasons.  There were many unknowns.  How does one do it?  How much does it cost?  How can one finance it?  Is it really a good opportunity?  Is it safe to cross the ocean?  (Would one fall off the edge?)  The answers to these questions were unknowns and people sought what they felt was the relative safety of the land journeys to the east.

One small group of Anabaptists undertook a trip to Pennsylvania in 1709.  They had to solve their problems as they went.  They did make it to Pennsylvania and they very quickly found that it was desirable.  (They were in fact the start of the Pennsylvania "Dutch".)  Very quickly they started doing two things:  They wrote home, and they sent an emissary to Germany to recruit more of their fellow citizens.  One of the early Anabaptists was Hans Herr who lived on the farm adjacent to Wagenbach where the Volcks and Utzes lived.  The word that it could be done and how to do it quickly spread and before long Reformed, Lutheran, and more Anabaptists were streaming into Pennsylvania.  The best mechanism for selling the American colonies was the letters that the early emigrants to America wrote back home.  People listened to friends. (11 Nov 05)

There was a recent recommendation for obtaining German road maps but it was assumed that you were already in Germany.  Not all of us can get to Germany and I would like to mention that one can obtain very detailed maps here.  They are wonderful research tools and it helps to make one feel that one is in contact with Germany.

I found my current copy on the Internet.  My previous copy came to my attention in another way.  A new copy was necessary because of the union of East and West Germany.  (We had wanted to visit Klings, the original home of Cyriacus Fleischmann, and it was in the former East Germany.)  Additionally, the first copy was so dog-eared that it was time to replace it.  (This is the mark of a good reference source; it is worn and well used.)

The map book is in German; it was printed in Germany, primarily for Germans, but that is not a problem.  (Some English translations are given.)  Here are two words from the cover:  Superatlas, Deutschland; however, you could probably do an Internet search on "Germany Road Map".  The company which was selling it is located in Canada and I believe that they sell many items from Germany.

This particular book is at a scale of 1:200,000, which means that almost all roads are given.  Some streets in the villages will not be shown clearly enough to be helpful.  All of the roads that would take you from "here to there" are given.  Seventy-four city plans are given.

The format is a spiral bound book of about 450 pages.  It will lay flat and is basically car friendly.  We drove thousands of miles in Germany and this was our only guide.  The best thing though about a map like this is a research tool here.  The book is fully indexed and one can use it to check the spelling and locations of villages.

It even shows the locations of some farms which have been named for centuries, but not all named farms are shown.  We did find Unterbiegelhof (roughly shown on the map) with the help of locals, but Kolmbach required the help of a native German who had access to a German ordinance map.

One of the shortcomings of the book is that it does not define the state boundaries clearly enough.  The old boundaries, for example, of Baden are not shown.  In this connection, the LDS on-line library research is helpful, but it uses the boundaries of about 1872.

The book is given in so much detail that one must be careful in driving because any one page has a very limited geographical area.  Before you are really aware of it, you will be on another page.
(14 Nov 05)

Now that we have a map of Germany, let's look at the problems of driving around in Germany.  First, none of the following remarks apply to a large city.  There is a choice of many types of roads that one could encounter and none of them are bad.  The drivers are generally courteous and before long one will begin to believe it is much like driving here.  Watch out for the triangular signs.  It is generally a warning of potential danger.  It is best not to assume that you have the right of way.

Since you are probably interested in the villages of your ancestors, you will be driving over some of the smaller, two-lane roads.  It is best to divide the driving and the navigating between two people.  On our first trip, Eleanor insisted on doing all of the driving and I did the navigating.  This was for two reasons.  She is not the best map reader and she believed that I would spend too much time looking around at the scenery (true).

When one is on the smaller roads, going from village to village, the navigator will probably select a road that looks like the direct way.  He expects the road will take him to village X next.  But as one leaves the present village, one comes to signs at a fork in the road and none of the destinations on the signs are the ones that the navigator has in mind.  Now, many of the roads in Germany do not have a convenient place to pull off the road and examine the map.  So more than once we made an arbitrary choice and then the navigator went to work seeing what the implications of this would be.  Thus, we sometimes took an alternative route to our destination.  Our attitude was not that we had made a mistake but that we were given an opportunity to see something that we had not expected.

Traveling on the Autobahns is different from the local roads.  First, on weekdays with trucks on the road, travel on the Autobahns is much like the Interstates here.  Speeds are limited by the flow of traffic and the best thing to do is to go with it.  On Sundays, the trucks are not allowed on the Autobahns and the average speed (the flow of the traffic) is higher.  Once, Eleanor was doing 160 km/hr and by the 5/8 rule I converted this to miles per hour.  In this case is very easy to do, so the result was 100 miles per hour.  As she said, "I was only going with the traffic flow," which was true.

The 5/8 rule is a good approximation to convert kilometers to miles.  To go from kilometers to miles multiply by 5 and divide by 8 (or divide by 8 and multiply by 5).  One can go the other direction by multiplying by 8 and dividing by 5.

I do not recommend driving in the larger cities.  Decisions must be reached too quickly.  On our visit to Heidelberg, we drove into the town, parked in the hotel, which was located close to the points that we wanted to visit, and left the car there until we left the town.
(15 Nov 05)

In the last Note I mentioned that a wrong turn might be made in Germany, but that it could often be put to good advantage.  I will describe one such case now.

Eleanor and I had lunch in Bad Wimpfen, along the Neckar River between Heidelberg and Heilbronn, and after lunch we climbed the "Blue Tower".  This is a holdover from the days when a tower was used as a lookout and a signaling station.  I am a fan of lookouts because they often give you a great view of the surrounding country side.  Certainly the Blue Tower did this, including a view of the Neckar River just below the tower.  As we were looking around, a motorized, self-propelled barge or boat went by on the Neckar River.  Even from the height of the tower I could see that the barge was carrying scrap iron.  Just to show Eleanor that I was knowledgeable about these things I drew her attention to it and told her what the barge was carrying.

Later, we proceeded along the road which roughly parallels the Neckar.  We did stop at the Guttenberg Castle with another tower, but we continued to follow the Neckar downstream.  I was navigating and at one point I told Eleanor to take the next right turn when I should have said "left".  She was faithful in the execution of her duties and we took the next right which we realized almost immediately would put us, almost in the river, in the general vicinity of some locks.  Since I had never seen locks in operation, I said to park the car and we would watch them in operation, assuming that something came along the river requiring the use of them.

Almost immediately, a barge came carrying scrap iron.  Probably it was the one which we had seen from the Blue Tower.  We were standing right beside the lock so that we could see the operation up close.  To our surprise, a young girl came out of the Captain�s house on deck and she proceeded to handle the ropes which tied the barge in place so that it would not move along the lock.  Since it was going down the river, the water in the lock was being lowered and let out at the downstream end.  This tended to move the barge forward but the rope held it back.  As the water lowered, she had to keep repositioning the rope to allow for the lower water level.

All of this was occurring right in front of us.  Eleanor started a conversation and fortunately the girl spoke excellent English.  She told us that normally she worked in a doctor's office but she was on vacation for a few weeks and she was helping her father who was the Captain on the barge.  The two of them were the crew.  The Captain had to be on duty in the wheelhouse and the girl was the deck hand.  She put out the lines when necessary to secure the barge.  But she probably did not take the helm for any extensive time as it takes a long period of training to be the master of a barge on the rivers.

To this day, we remember this unplanned event most fondly.
(16 Nov 05)

Barbara (Yager) Clore Chelf has an unusual position in the Hebron Baptismal Register.  In fact, her appearances there are sufficient evidence that the Baptismal Register was rewritten at one time.  How could her appearance there be so important to understanding the Register?

Barbara Yager married Peter Clore, and he died in 1763, as we know from his will and probate.  She then married Phillip Chelf.  Before 1763, she should be known as a Clore (after her marriage to Peter).

At the baptism on 8 March 1759 of Margaretha, the daughter of Nicolaus Krickler (Crigler) and his wife Margaretha Kaefer, one of the sponsors is given as Barbara Chelf!  The choice of Barbara as a sponsor was normal, as she was the wife of Peter Clore, a cousin-in-law of the father.

It would have taken a lot of crystal ball reading to foresee in 1759 that Barbara would, after a few years, be a Chelf.  How did the writer know this?

Sometime before October of 1775, the Baptismal Register was rewritten and reorganized.  The best candidate for doing the rewriting and reorganization was suggested by Andreas Mielke, who thinks it may have been Heinrich Moeller, who had accepted the post of pastor in 1774, but then reneged on his duties.  For a while he was a Catechist at the German Lutheran Church in Culpeper County.  In order to understand the community better, he reorganized and rewrote the Baptismal Register, and what we have today is the result of his work.

As he rewrote the Register, he updated the information in the sense that he used the names of people as they were known in 1774!  Thus, even though Barbara Yager Clore was her name in 1759, he entered her name in the rewritten Register as Barbara Chelf, though that was not her name in 1759.

At the same time, he omitted some information because it was no longer relevant.  If a family had moved away, and by this time (1774) several families had left, then he did enter information on their children, as he did not consider it important to understanding the community in the Robinson River Valley.  (And besides paper was expensive.)

Even though the original Register is no longer in existence for births before 1775, the extant Register is an extremely valuable document for understanding the community.  It has been translated with amendments and is available from me or from the Germanna Foundation.  It is the best available source material, even better, on the average, than the original, hard-to-read German hand-written documents.
(17 Nov 05)

Let's look at Phillip Chelf in the records of the German Lutheran Church (now called Hebron) in Culpeper County, Virginia.  He appears in the first Communion List (after 28 October 1775, but before 25 December of that year) as "Philipp Jelf wife Barbara".  The couple appear on other occasions, always together, until 2 September 1792.  That is her last appearance, though he appears alone in 1794, 1796, and 1798.  He is not listed in 1794 as a widower, so perhaps Barbara was ill or unable to attend.  Most probably, though, she had died between 1792 and 1794.

Phillip and Barbara were the parents of children, but none of them appear in the Baptismal Register.  I believe that both Phillip and Barbara had children from previous marriages.  Certainly Barbara did, as they are recorded in the Baptismal Register.  Assuming that Phillip and Barbara were approximately of the same age, than it would be likely that he would have been a father when he married Barbara.

I think we have a clue as to one of these children in the Baptismal and Communion Lists.  When Daniel Boehme and his wife Nancy had Johannes baptized 1779, one of the sponsors was Philipp Schelpf, whom I believe was her (Nancy's) father.  Another sponsor was Johannes Jaeger, who would have been her step-uncle if Nancy were the daughter of Phillip.  At a baptism of Susanna in 1777 (parents were Daniel Boehme and Nancy), one of the sponsors was Delila (Clore) Breil, who would have been a step-sister to Nancy.  Thus, Nancy is closely tied to the family of Phillip and Barbara Chelf.

Looking at the Communion Lists for appearances of Daniel Boehme and his wife Nancy, we find that the first appearance of Nancy was in 1783, even though Daniel had appeared on five occasions prior to this.  They had been married prior to this, for their children first appeared in 1777.  This is a case of Baptism and Confirmation after marriage, a not unusual occurrence.

Thus, we might draw the following conclusions.  Phillip Chelf was a Baptized and Confirmed Lutheran, for he participated in the Lutheran Communion Services.  At this time in the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley, only Confirmed Lutherans could participate.  (This is why no German Reformed people appear in the Communion Lists.)  Apparently, though, he did not believe in baptizing his children, for none of the children of Phillip and Barbara Chelf appear in the Baptismal Register.  Also, the apparent children of Phillip by a previous marriage were not baptized.  Though this seems strange to us, there are many mysteries concerning Phillip Chelf.  We do not know the usual German spelling of his name, nor where he came from.  There is a hint that he was in the Shenandoah Valley before he came to the Robinson River Valley.
(18 Nov 05)