I am researching Jacob Zinck/Zink (often spelled Sinks), born in Virginia in 1756 and died in Indiana in 1829. The name of his wife is unknown, but there are researchers who believe it was Mary M. Wertmiller. That issue is the subject of this posting, which is being sent to both the Zink and the Sinks lists in hopes that someone can add information or insights that will help to resolve some of these issues. Perhaps there are even others who are researching these same individuals! I ask pardon for the involved background information that follows, but the issues are complex. What we know about Jacob's wife is that her headstone identifies her as Mary M. and gives a birth date of March 23, 1776. Some researchers assert that Jacob married Mary Margaret Wertmiller in Pendleton County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1790, but I have seen no documentation for this marriage. Note that Mary would have been 14 years old at the time of this marriage. (Jacob would have been 33 years old.) Jacob Zinck grew up in the Stony Creek area of what is now Shenandoah County, Virginia; it was then still part of Frederick County. The farm of his father, Gottlieb Zinck, was near to Zion Lutheran Church, where Jacob began his career as a minister sometime around 1780. Also near to that church was the farm of John and Elizabeth (Ziegler) Wertmiller, who were married in 1764. This couple bought their property in 1773 and sold it in 1780, after which they apparently relocated to Hampshire County, Virginia (also now in West Virginia). Thus it is likely that Jacob Zinck knew the Wertmillers, and perhaps even young Mary. I have a theory that Jacob Zinck himself moved to Hampshire County during the early 1780s: he disappears from Shenandoah County at that time, and a Jacob Sinks is found in Hampshire County during the later 1780s--and as far as I know neither before nor after then. Rev. Jacob Zinck, we know, moved to southwest Virginia in 1790. It would be possible, then, that Jacob could have continued his acquaintance with the Wertmillers, and Mary in particular, during the 1780s--marrying her before the couple went off to southwest Virginia and later Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. This would mean courting young Mary at a very early age, however, and so I have wondered if her grave marker is incorrect: might she have been born in 1766 instead? Note that her parents were married in 1764. The first known child was born in 1768, which is a bit late for the 18th century and leaves room for Mary to have been the firstborn instead--in 1766. Her birth in that earlier year helps us imagine a scenario in which Jacob (probably a schoolteacher before he became a pastor) knew Mary as a teenager in the Stony Creek area before the Wertmillers moved west. Perhaps Jacob even followed them to Hampshire County because of his affection for Mary and married her there when he was 33 and she was 24. This seems more logical to me. Can anyone shed light on any of these issues? I include as "issues" the Wertmiller family and its children, the Sinks in Hampshire County, Mary's year of birth, and the supposed Zinck-Wertmiller marriage in Pendleton County. Thank you for your patience. Donn Neal neals@shentel.net More details on these issues can be found at http://www.user.shentel.net/neals/