Good answer, Teri. Let's concentrate on the first marriage between Christian Frantz and Mary Garst, with whom you have two lines. Mary Garst lives in one corner of the county and Christian Frantz in another. How and why would they have come into contact? Let's assume something simple like meeting at a large Conestoga Brethren love feast around 1780, a couple of years prior to their marriage. Now you have to address the question of how and why would John Nicholas Garst, born and baptized Reformed (strict father, etc.), have become Brethren after he settled on Little Swatara Creek. Someone had to influence him to get him to rebel from his father and siblings, all who lived in Bethel and were very Reformed. Enter the Frantz family (children of Christian Frantz I). They settled on Little Swatara Creek at the same time (circa 1750) as John Nicholas Garst. They founded the Little Swatara Brethren Society in 1757. Michael Frantz (son of Christian I) lived two farms upstream from John Nicholas Garst. His kid sister Elizabeth was born in 1729 and was two years younger than John Nicholas Garst who was single. Michael Frantz not only founded the Little Swatara Society, he became an elder in 1780. He was the closest Brethren Society neighbor of John Nicholas Garst. He had a kid sister Elizabeth who was about 21 years old when he and John Nicholas Garst (age 23 or 24) became neighbors on Little Swatara Creek. You can take it from there...... I have no proof, but my intuition tells me that John Nicholas Garst married Elizabeth Frantz, first cousin of Michael Frantz II of Cocalico. My intuition tells me that your Mary Garst was a second cousin of your Christian Frantz, and the other four Frantz-Garst marriages were between second cousins. I didn't pull Elizabeth Frantz out of the hat. She has been listed as John Nicholas Garst's wife in several IGI family files, one being the file submitted by Betty Farnsworth, a person whom yourself cite on your Theobald Gerst webpage. Dwayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Teri Pettit" <pettit@adobe.com> To: <brethren@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 7:27 PM Subject: Re: [BRE] Explaining the Frantz-Garst Marriages >I think this is the most likely explanation for the second through fifth > marriages. > > My sister's second husband was the brother of my brother's second wife, > and > Patti and Allen first met at Jeff and Desi's wedding. Before they started > dating they also occasionally saw each other as in-laws at other events > where both our family and Desi's family attended, such as when we were all > visiting after the birth of Jeff and Desi's first child. > > And there was no church or community connection. Jeff, Desi and Allen > lived > in Farmington, NM, while Patti and the rest of our family lived near Santa > Fe, NM. That's nearly a four hour drive. Desi and Allen are Mormons; our > family was raised Disciples of Christ. > > As far as how the first meeting between Christian Frantz and Mary Garst > came > about, I'm reluctant to speculate. It could be either of the reasons you > hypothesize, or something else altogether. We may never know. > > > > On 3/24/08 7:09 AM, "Dwayne Wrightsman" <dwayne55@comcast.net> wrote: > >> Jan, >> >> Great point. The five marriages were indeed sequential, the first one >> (between Christian Frantz of Cocalico and Mary Garst of Little Swatara) >> was >> in 1782 or 1783, and the second one (between Daniel Frantz and Anna >> Garst) >> on July 25, 1784. The marriages between David Frantz and Elizabeth >> Garst, >> Peter Frantz and Catharine Garst, and Jacob Garst and Christina Frantz, >> came >> later. Do you think that the first marriage had to do with the "love >> feast" >> conjecture or with the possibility that they all may have been second >> cousins? One thing is sure, the families lived in distant corners of the >> Conestoga Congregation territory.