Johannes Finger's Children

The chart below compares the listing of Johannes' children from different sources. The notes below explain the conclusion we have come to on the Finger Family website. For each child, we list his name, year of birth, and who he or she married.

	FingerFamily site	Hank Jones	Old Dutch Post Star	Ruth Gloor Fingar

1 *	Elisabeth 1727 Johann(Henrich) Schmidt	Elisabetha 1727 Henr Schmidt	Elizabeth 1727	Elisabeth 1727 Johann Schmidt
2 *	Michael 1728 Margaretha Moescher	Michael 1728 Margaretha Moescher	Michael (Conrad)	Michael 1728
3	Marie Elizabeth 1731	Maria 1731	David	Marie Elizabeth 1730
4 *	David 1733 Elisabeth Dick	David Elisabetha Dick	Marie 1731	David 1733
5	Anna Catherina 1734 Peter Hess	Anna Catharina 1734	Anna Catherine	Anna Catherina 1734
6	Johann Friederich 1735	Johann Friederich 1735
7	John Henrich 1737	Johann Henrich 1737		John Henrich 1737
8	Johannes 1739	Johannes 1739	Johannes 1739	Johannes 1739 Elisabeth Blass
9	Johannes 1741 Elisabeth Blass	Johannes 1741 Elisabeth Blass	Johannes 1741
10 *	Catharina 1742 Peter M. Blass	Catharine 1742 Peter Blass	Catherine 1742	Catherina 1742 Peter Hess, Jr
11 *	Jacob 1744 Marytjen(Maria) Blass	Jacob 1744 Maria Blass	Jacob 1744	Jacob 1744
12 *	Conrad 1746 Anatje(Anna) Berringer	Conrad Hannah	(Conrad)	Conrad 1746
13 *	Annatchen 1748 Jacob Blass		Anna 1748	Anna 1748 Jacob Blass
14 *	Peterus 1751		Peter	Petrus 1751 "never married"
* Mentioned in Johannes' will

In order to make the information on the Finger Family website more closely match the various sources, I have done the following:

This clears most discrepancies. It seemed unusual that there were 4 sons named John/Johann, but Hank Jones does cite the documentation, and the Old Dutch Post Star article already did have 3 listed. Perhaps two or 3 of them died young. This is also supported by the fact that there is no mention of a Johann or John in Johannes Finger's will.

One other discrepancy is, who married Peter Hess and who married Peter Blass. The extracted birth record for Johannes Blass, b. 1773 shows his father as Pieter Blass and his mother as Catharina Finger. But we also have the marriage record, shown below, that clearly shows the marriage of Peter Hefs [Hess] & Catharina Vinger. Most likely one of the Catharinas was Anna Catharina who might have gone by her middle name, since there is another daughter named Anna. I have chosen to put Anna Catherina with Peter Hess and Catharina with Peter Blass based on their ages, pairing the ones that are closer together. Anna Catherina was born in 1734 and Peter Hess was born in 1742, while Catharina was born in 1742 and Peter Blass in 1745. This is just speculation on my part, and determining which is which will take some more research.

Then there is the matter of the two additional children not listed by Hank Jones, Annatjen and Peterus. This may have been an omission on his part, since both are documented in extracted christening records, LDS IGI, and there are additional extracted christening records showing Anna Finger and Jacob Blass as parents. There is an extracted christening record from the Germantown Reformed Church that names Petrus as a son of Johannes and Catarin Finger, and Peterus is mentioned in Johannes' will.. According to History of Columbia County, Peterus was not married.