Family:Mark Finks and Elizabeth Fisher (1)

Descendants of Mark Finks

Generation No. 1

1. MARK1 FINKS was born WFT Est. 1710-1715 in Germany, and died 1764 in Virginia. He married ELIZABETH ??? Bef. 1734 in Prob. Virginia. She was born Bef. 1716 in Germany, and died Aft. 1776 in prob. Virginia.

Notes for MARK FINKS: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/GERMANNA_COLONIES/2007-07/1185494660

1 Mark Finks, Sr. 1700 - 1764 .. +Elizabeth 1717 - 1776 ........ 2 Catharina Finks 1734 - ............ +Christopher Crigler 1721 - 1808 ........ 2 Christina Finks 1736 - 1815 ............ +Christopher Blankenbaker 1730 - 1781 ........ 2 Elizabeth Finks 1737 - 1820 ............ +Matthias Weaver 1732 - 1821 ........ 2 Mark Finks, Jr. 1744 - 1834 ............ +Eve Fisher 1754 - 1838 ........ 2 John Finks 1747 - ............ +Anna ........ 2 Andrew Finks 1750 - ............ +Sarah ........ *2nd Wife of Andrew Finks: ............ +Lucy Vawter ........ 2 Maria Finks 1753 - ............ +Adam Wayland 1723 - 1777 ........ 2 Hannah Finks 1756 - ............ +Henry Wayland - 1812

From: germanna_colonies-bounces@rootsweb.com [1] On Behalf Of John Blankenbaker Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 6:29 PM To: germanna_colonies@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GERMANNA] John FLESHMAN, Who Was His Wife?

<snip> According to one book, we might infer that the husband was a Fink(s) but we have no proof. An analysis of the ages would suggest a younger brother of Mark Finks, Sr.

Mark Finks, Sr. was married twice. His first wife was totally unknown and she may have come from outside the Germanna colonies as did Mark himself. At the birth of Elizabeth Finks, her mother died and Anna Barbara Carpenter and John Carpenter raised Elizabeth. This is why in the Hebron records she acts so much like a Carpenter. Mark Finks remarried and his second wife was named Elizabeth. She may have come from within the Germanna community but perhaps she was English.

From Rootsweb.com post:

GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

Archiver > GERMANNA_COLONIES > 2005-05 > 1116853271

From: "johblank@pipeline.com" <johblank@pipeline.com> Subject: Elizabeth Finks Weaver Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 09:01:11 -0400

[Here is a revised copy of the recent note which should have had as its subject "Elizabeth Finks Weaver." Just delete or toss the earlier one away.]

In my study of the Hebron Baptismal Records, there is a definite pattern in the choice of sponsors. These are very strong patterns which are not to be ignored and it has been very helpful in identifying several unknown individuals. One individual has a record which seems to fall outside the norm. She seems, overwhelming, to be a sister to the four Carpenter men who were sons of John Carpenter and Anna Barbara Kerker. Her married name is Elizabeth Weaver, the wife of Matthias Weaver. An Elizabeth Weaver is named as a daughter in Mark Finks' (Sr.) will. This conflict between the will and the baptismal records and the communion records bothered me for more than ten years. I spent days trying to resolve the question without success. I was so impressed by the pattern in choosing baptismal sponsors and in the seating pattern during communions that I was inclined to put an Elizabeth in as a sister of the four Carpenter men. Elizabeth had a strong presence in the Hebron records whic! h is not typical of the Finks family. Had she rebelled against her family? With her marriage to Matthias Weaver, did she choose an active participation at Hebron which the Finks family does not show? She acts overwhelming like a "Carpenter." That she became an active Lutheran participant was not hard to believe but why did she act so much like a Carpenter?

A few years ago, Nancy Dodge suggested to me that Mark Finks, Sr. had been married twice. I won't go into her reasons but it was based on associations with other individuals in the Robinson River Valley. After she told me this, a light came on for me that resolved the quandry I had been in.

I now believe that Mark Finks, Sr. was married twice. His second wife was Elizabeth Unknown and his first wife is unknown. There was a daughter Elizabeth by his first wife who died during childbirth. As a widower with an infant daughter, he accepted the offer of Barbara Kerker Carpenter to take care of the child. The Carpenters became very attached to the girl and continued to raise her even after Mark Finks later remarried. Elizabeth was raised by the Carpenters and thought of them as her family. She was raised in the Lutheran faith and was active at the church and appears to be a Carpenter.

In preparing my book, the 'Hebron' Baptismal Register, I adopted the position that Elizabeth was a Finks who was adopted and raised by the Carpenters. I described the four Carpenter men as her surrogate siblings. Thus, at church she acted as though she were a Carpenter while Mark Finks, Sr. recognized her in his will as a daughter. This is the answer, I believe, to the biggest mystery in the Hebron records. This answer is simple and an excellent explanation for explaining her actions. I readily acknowledge that Nancy Dodge was the individual who set me on what I believe was the correct path. Incidentally, this explanation of Elizabeth's behavior supports Nancy's concept that Mark Finks, Sr. was married at least twice. John Blankenbaker www.germanna.com

Children of MARK FINKS and ELIZABETH ??? are:

• i. CATHARINE2 FINKS, b. 1734, Prob. Virginia; m. CHRISTOPHER CRIGLER, 1750; b. 1721, prob. Culpeper County, Virgini; d. 1808, Culpeper County, Virginia.

Notes for CHRISTOPHER CRIGLER: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GERMANNA_COLONIES/1997-04/0860025755

Christopher and his wife Catherine communed at Hebron Lutheran Church until 1787.

Christopher's will is recorded at Culpeper VA, May 30, 1809, in Will Book F, page 119 and reads as follows;

'In the name of God, Amen, I Christopher Crigler of the County of Culpeper, a citizen of the United States do make, ordain and declare this is my instrument which is written and every page thereof subscribed with my name, to be my last will and testament, revoking all others.

All debts of which there are few and none of magnitude are to be paid promptly, and my will carried out. I bequeth to my daughter Elizabeth Taylor one hundred acres of land, corner to John Finks. I have no money to pay for her being security for her administration of estate of David Yowell, deceased. If I have any money to pay on account it must come out of this I leave her and her daughters.

To my son William Crigler the land I now live on, with all improvements, and after my death, my will is that my whole personal estate be equally divided among all children. I appoint William Crigler and Lewis Crigler executors of my estate.

I set my hand and seal this September 9, 1808

(signed) Christopher Crigler

Witnessed: Joseph Carpenter Gabriel Murphy Charles Murphy Will probated May 23, 1810.

Christopher Crigler was commissioned an Ensign in the Culpeper Militia, August 18, 1763. He is also listed as a Patriot by the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

• ii. CHRISTINA FINKS, b. 1736, Prob. Virginia; m. CHRISTOPHER BLANKENBAKER; b. 1730; d. 1781.
• iii. ELIZABETH FINKS, b. 1737, Prob. Virginia; d. 1820; m. MATTHIAS WEBER, Bef. 1757, Prob. Virginia; b. Abt. 1732, Spotsylvania (now Madison) County, Virginia; d. 1821.

Notes for ELIZABETH FINKS: From Rootsweb.com post:

From: John Blankenbaker <johblank@pipeline.com> Subject: Wife of Matthias Weaver Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:48:45 -0700

Cathi Clore Frost gave a summary of the Peter Weaver family. To this, I would make only one additional suggestion. Cathi did not give a wife for Matthias Weaver. I believe this person was Elizabeth Finks. This was not an easy decision to come to for the simple reason that in the church records ("Hebron") she acts overwhelming like a Carpenter. The resolution of this delimna was provided by Nancy Dodge who suggested that Mark Finks, Sr. was married twice. I can now see that what happened was that Elizabeth Finks' mother died when Elizabeth was an infant. This is always a problem for the father and I believe that the Carpenters volunteered to care for Elizabeth. They, the Carpenters, had no daughters and they were reluctant to return Elizabeth to her father when he remarried. Elizabeth was raised as a Carpenter though she never lost her identity as a Finks. Her father, in his will left her a bequest, naming her as Elizabeth Weaver. At church she was closer to the Carpenters and acted as though she were a sister of the four Carpenter boys. This explanation accounts for her "strange" behavior.

John Blankenbaker

Notes for MATTHIAS WEBER:

Possiblly the same Matthias Weaver? http://www.pa-roots.com/~berks/wills/Admins1786-1790.html

WEAVER, MATHIAS, Bern. July 24, 1787. Adm. to Daniel GICKER and wife Catharine, only dau. of Mathias WEAVER, deceased, who was the only son of said intestate.

• iv. MARK FINKS, b. 1744, Prob. Virginia; d. 1834; m. EVE FISHER; b. 1754; d. 1838.
• v. JOHN FINKS, b. 1747, Prob. Virginia; m. ANNA ???.
• vi. ANDREW FINKS, b. 1750, Prob. Virginia; m. (1) SARAH ???; m. (2) LUCY VAWTER.
• vii. MARIA "MARY" FINKS, b. 1753, Prob. Virginia; d. Abt. 1830, Virginia; m. (1) ADAM WAYLAND, Abt. 1776; b. 1723, Culpeper County, Virginia; d. 1777, prob. Virginia; m. (2) DANIEL UTZ, Abt. 1785; b. Abt. 1740.

Notes for ADAM WAYLAND: From "Germanna History", notes Nr. 1389:

Thomas Wayland's son, Adam Wayland, married first, Elizabeth Blankenbaker, the daughter of Balthasar Blankenbaker, a 1717 immigrant. They had six children, it is believed. Elizabeth died, and Adam married Mary Finks, and they had two children.

There was a famous lawsuit among the heirs of Adam Wayland. When he was still married to Elizabeth Blankenbaker, he wrote a will. Then he married again and failed to update his will to note the second wife. The guardians of Mary’s children brought suit to claim a portion of the estate. Thomas Jefferson even submitted an opinion in the case, and it was decided that the second family had a claim to a portion of the estate. After Adam died, Mary married Daniel Utz, about 1784.

Adam's son, John Wayland, married Catherine Broyles, the daughter of Jacob Broyles. They had a large family of eleven children. We will start looking at the grandchildren in the next note.

Nr. 1390:

Adam Wayland, who married Elizabeth Blankenbaker, appears in the Hebron Church communion lists until 1778, but by then Elizabeth had died, and Adam was then married to Mary (Finks). At Christmas 1776, and at Easter 1776, his wife was also Maria. So the first wife Elizabeth was dead by then.

In using the index to the Hebron baptismal register, one must consult both the names Wayland, which is used after 1782, and Weyland, which is generally used before that date. Adam Weyland and his wife Elizabeth were often baptismal sponsors for Christopher Blankenbaker and his wife Christina (Finks). (Christopher had no sisters and Elizabeth had no brothers. They lived on adjacent farms, and sometimes they seem like siblings.) It was probably through Christina (Finks) Blankenbaker that Adam became acquainted with his second wife. The first appearance of Adam Weyland as a sponsor for Christopher and Christina was in 1754, and he would have been married to Elizabeth by then. Otherwise, he would not have been selected.

None of the children of Adam by his first wife Elizabeth appear in the baptismal records, which probably means that the first child was born before 1750, so none of the family was included in the 1775 rewrite of the baptismal register. The child Adam Weyland (with Mary Finks as its mother) was baptized 18 May 1777, with sponsors John Blankenbaker, Christina Blankenbaker, Adam Fisher, and Barbara Fisher. The easiest one of these to identify is Christina, who was born a Finks, the sister of Mary, the mother of Adam. Barbara Fisher was the cousin of Christopher, and the sister of Adam's first wife Elizabeth. (Barbara was usually called Anna Barbara, but not always.) Adam Fisher was the son of Barbara Fisher. John Blankenbaker may have been Christopher's brother, but this is not certain, as there were other John Blankenbakers, and Christopher's brother does not appear in the church records very often, if at all.

Adam Weyland and Elizabeth Weyland were sponsors for Heinrich Miller and his wife Susanna, and the interpretation of the appearances (four times for Adam) is a bit of a mystery. The Millers were newcomers to the community and lacked relatives to act as sponsors. Adam, as a church officer, may have been standing in to fulfill the need for sponsors. Then there may be a hidden relationship that we do not know. (29 Mar 02)

Nr. 1391: Adam Wayland, who married, first, Elizabeth Blankenbaker, is said to have had six children with her, who were:

Elizabeth (* c1749), who married Morton Christopher; John (* c1751), who married Rosina Wilhoit; Mary (* c1754), who married Godfrey Yager; Joshua (* c1759), who married Rachel Utz; Lewis (* c1762), who married Elizabeth Link; and Anne (* ca 1768), who married Nicholas Yager.

• viii. HANNAH FINKS, b. 1756, Prob. Virginia; m. HENRY WAYLAND; d. 1812.