GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (403)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 08:11:35 -0400

The four hundred and third note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

The choice of sponsors at baptisms at the Hebron Lutheran Church was a very
serious affair. In the constitution which they wrote in 1776 (under the
guidance of Rev. Franck), the second paragraph says, "but he (the minister)
also must be ready and conscientious enough to refuse the Holy Communion and
the ability to be baptismal witnesses to those who, obviously, or according
to credible report, are found to have committed gross sins and
transgressions." [Of course, this was all in German.]

Nowhere is it written down, but the baptismal sponsors or witnesses were
nearly always drawn from relatives of the parents of the same generation.
Marriage qualified one to be considered a relative. Thus, siblings,
sibling-in-laws, cousins, or spouses of cousins constitute the big majority
of the sponsors. Friendship did not qualify one.

In the rewritten Register at the Hebron Church, there are these baptisms.
The parents are Conrad Künzle and his wife Rahel (Rachel), the child is
Elisabetha, the date of birth is 2 Nov 1773, and the sponsors are Johannes
Schmidt, Elisabetha Schmidt, Heinrich Berler, and Jeminy Berler. It was
customary for some of the sponsors to be his relatives and some to be her
relatives but there are many cases where one of the parents had no relatives
in the congregation. In this case Conrad had no relatives and, as is
typical, all of the sponsors were hers (Rachel's). To place Rachel, we would
look for where the Smith and Barlow families intersect. This would be the
family of Adam Barlow and Mary Smith. Thus the odds are strongly that Rachel
is the daughter of Adam and Mary. If so, then John Smith is her cousin,
Elizabeth is John's wife, and Henry and Jemima are either siblings of Rachel
or are cousins of Rachel or a mixture.

Conrad and Rachel had Nimrod (born 18 Dec 1775) baptized with sponsors Georg
Christler, Anna Christler, Heinrich Berler, and Jemimy Berler. Anne is
Rachel's cousin and George is Anne's husband. Henry and Jemima are as
before. On another occasion, Conrad Genssle (the spelling difference is not
significant) and Rahel had Ambrosious (born 13 Feb 1778) baptized (5 Apr
1778) with sponsors Georg Christler, Dieterich Hoffman, Lea Breil, Susanna
Ohler. George Crisler was Rachel's cousin's husband and Dieterich was
Rachel's brother-in-law. These are very conventional choices. Susanna Ohler
was an unmarried Aylor who was a once-removed cousin of Rachel through the
Thomas family. I do not have any relationship for Lea Broyles but that may
be just my ignorance. Note that a Lea Berler was confirmed in 1777.

That Dieterich Hoffman was Rachel's brother-in-law is shown in the baptism
(18 Aug 1777) of Enoch Barlow, the son of Adam Barlow and his wife Mary. Two
of the sponsors are Dieterich Hoffman and his wife Jemima Hoffman. I believe
this Jemima was the sponsor twice for Conrad and Rachel who had married
Dieterich since then. Adam and Mary are the parents of Rachel and we have
the reversal of the generations. Enoch was probably the youngest of the
children of Adam and Mary. Already Rachel, who must been one of the oldest
of the children of Adam and Mary, had been parent twice. And Jemima was
probably one of the older children of Adam and Mary. She was old enough to
be a sponsor for Conrad and Rachel twice before her marriage. So Uncle Enoch
was younger than his niece and nephew.

The choice of Dieterich and Jemima as sponsors for Enoch is a deviation of
the same generation rule. It does occur at times, especially for the last
children in a family when some of the older children are already married.
The parents have worn out the patience of their relatives in asking them to
be sponsors.

I have served on a jury for a criminal case where the evidence presented by
the government was admittedly weak but the jury was asked to convict on the
basis of circumstantial evidence which fit a pattern. Several of us balked
at this. If the question of whether Rachel was a daughter of Adam and Mary
Barlow were before me to decide as a criminal case, I would not have any
hesitation to convict based the circumstantial evidence that I have
presented. The people at Hebron were far too regular in their practices for
it to be otherwise.
John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/germhist.htm

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