GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (191)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 13:43:13 -0400

The one hundred and ninety-first note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

Recent notes have elicited several comments.

Sally Baughn has corrected the record as it pertains to Eve Baumgartner who
married Mordecai Boughan/Baughan/Vaughan. Sally was very modest in her
recital and used the pronoun, "we," where it might have been more
appropriate to use "I." Her voyage of discovery was told in Beyond Germanna
in the volume 3, number 4 issue. Her search had taken her far and wide until
she was able to make an important connection. In note 187 here, which lists
immigrants to Northern Virginia, correct the wife of Michael Aylor to Sarah
Boughan, the daughter of Mordecai Boughan and Eve Baumgarner.

Sally asks if the parents of Mary Zimmerman (who married Mordecai Boughan,
Jr. as his first wife in 1801) are known. I would draw attention to the
family of John Zimmerman (1737-1819), the son of John Zimmerman who married
Ursula Blankenbaker. John, Jr. was married three times and I do not know how
the children divide among the wives. One child was Mary, born ca the time
of the Revolution, who has not been given a husband. Based on the name,
Mary, the age, and the lack of an assigned husband, this Mary is a strong
candidate.

Ann in Kansas () asks about Maximilian and Uriah Rector.
Larry King's "Rector Records" does not even list Maximilian and assigns
Uriah as a son of Harmon (number 4 in the notes here). In Beyond Germanna,
v.9, n.3, Tommie Brittain presents circumstantial evidence that Uriah and
Maximilian were brothers. They probably had another brother, John, at whose
marriage (to Chloe McPherson), Maximilian was a witness on 29 September in
Botetourt Co., VA. In the same issue of Beyond Germanna, John Alcock relates
his searches among the "loose papers" in Fauquier Co., VA where he found the
lawsuit of John Peyton Harrison against Uriah Rector in 1784. Uriah was the
youngest son and heir at law to John Rector who had been "killed by thunder"
before John made a deed for sale of land to Harrison.

Harmon's will mentioned three sons, but he only named one, Harmon, Jr. Some
people had assigned Uriah to Harmon but they failed to note that two John
Rectors had been merged into one John. When split apart separately, the new
John had to be assigned to Harmon based on a record which named a son of
Harmon as John (this point was shown by John Alcock). It was Barbara Vines
Little who found that one John Rector should be split into two men. Her
research is given in Beyond Germanna, v.8, n.2.

While mentioning these modern day researches, much of it started with the
findings of John K. Gott who found the lawsuit which made it clear that John
Rector (#2) was married twice. The lawsuit was reported in BG:2:1. An
analysis by John Alcock was published in BG:6:6.

There is a moral to be drawn from all of this research. Most everyone had
been happy with the reported structure of the Rector family. There was not
much evidence of any problems. Almost accidentally, evidence was found to
the contrary. You have to ask, "When the evidence is all in family X, how
will it change?" Perhaps it is best to remember that every assignment up
your tree has a probability attached to it. More work should be done on
improving these probabilities rather than collected sheer numbers of ancestors.
John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/
http://www.concentric.net/~sgtgeorg/germhist.shtm

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