Just like the Amish, our German-descendant ancestors spoke both languages. In Montgomery Co. the eastern townships were almost totally that with the exception of town folks. Rog Rhoadsw In a message dated 2/13/2014 8:02:03 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, mjrice.denver@gmail.com writes: Cousin Roger! Good to hear from you! I hope you're doing well. I wish this family left a trail like T. J. Rhodes did! "My experience is that when a couple in those days were married by a J.P. it is evidence that the couple was of two different denominations." I had not considered the different faiths angle. I also had no idea that German was spoken for so long in some areas. Would a relatively assimilated (into the melting pot) family have likely spoken both languages? 1800 found the Sherow's living in a Scot-Irish area of Augusta County, VA. There, they married into the Andrew and Weikle families, in the Scot-Irish Presbyterian church. When they arrived in Miami Valley, OH, ca 1810, they disbursed and didn't buy land immediately adjacent to the rest of the family. The Andrew family landed in Montgomery County, and the Sherow family in Miami County: Union & Concorde twps. Once there, most subsequent marriages we find are by JOP, rather than ministers. I and a couple of other Sherow cousins are trying to dig further on this line, and we are trying to establish the original nationality of "Sherow, Sherrow, Sharow, Shero, Sharo, Shiro." We have never seen it spelled Shearer, Sherrer, ect. - which I believe would be the more German variant. Once in the Miami Valley, the family married into the Young and Peck families. A local history says Philip Young joined the Brethren late in life. Thank you! On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 4:57 AM, <_RRRhoads@aol.com_ (mailto:RRRhoads@aol.com) > wrote: Message: 1 Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:55:31 -0700 From: Melanie Rice <_mjrice.denver@gmail.com_ (mailto:mjrice.denver@gmail.com) > Subject: [BRE] German Baptist marriage record questions To: _BRETHREN@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:BRETHREN@rootsweb.com) Message-ID: <CADOsdMC7Bmu5H5V_y2kx6gFpjTbBW3wwvzza8rff4=_UGGnwj5g@mail.gmail.com_ (mailto:UGGnwj5g@mail.gmail.com) > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 If a couple was married by a German Baptist minister in 1827, PrebleCounty, OH - *may I presume that one or both of their families were brethren?* During that time period, in relatively newly settled Ohio, would a German Baptist minister have married couples who were not part of their church? The specific marriage record is for a Caty Sharow to a Daniel Brucker, on May 17, 1827, Preble County, OH. Also, if other couples I am researching in the same vicinity and time period were NOT married by a minister of the gospel, *may I presume the couple was not religious?* Would there be legitimate reasons that church members would be married by a JOP? I am working on a difficult family line that seems to have ties in Miami, Montgomery and Preble counties, OH, from about 1810 - 1840+. Do I understand correctly that* the designation "German Baptist" is synonymous with Dunker Brethren in the early 1800s, Ohio?* Lastly, *would the German Baptist churches in the Miami Valley have spoken ONLY German at that time? Could the churches have been bilingual? What about the members?* The family I'm working on (Sherow, etc.), came from a Scot-Irish settlement in Augusta County, VA, and appears to have been assimilated. My research so far indicates they likely spoke English by the time they arrived in the Miami Valley, about 1810. Thank you! Melanie Rice Denver, Colo. ------------------------------------------- Melanie, Hey, your one of mine, cuzz (through Thomas Jefferson Rhodes)! My experience is that when a couple in those days were married by a J.P. it is evidence that the couple was of two different denominations. As for the spoken language, I think that German was spoken among most German descendants until as late as the 1870s based on German language tombstones in Montgomery Co. I know that the Evangelical Lutheran (aka German) churches had German language preaching until the 1930s. High schools in rural areas (e.g. Brookville) had German courses that ended with WW I when Germany started the war. When the citizens of Brookville demanded the school stop all German courses, the school officials refused. Whereupon the citizens stormed the school and burned the books. Roger Rhoads ------------------------