This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Thomas, Rishel Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/IEC.2ACE/1075.1.1.1.2.1 Message Board Post: Hello Rosalie, I am a descendant of Jacob M. Thomas and Mary Fike. Are you referring to the Bittinger information: "Allegheny Passage, Churches and Families, West Marva District, Church of the Brethren, 1752-1990", by Emmert F. Bittinger, Penobscot Press, Camden, Maine, 1990, p.449. "The children of Jacob M. and Mary Fike Thomas should be listed, for they reveal the names of ministers and deacons in the congregation. Jacob and Mary were married in 1818 and moved to a farm just south of the Salem Church in West Virginia and eight miles south of his father's farm in Fayette County. Their children were: (1) John J. b. 1817 married Lydia Maust (2) Barbara b. 1818 married Joseph Zimmerman (3) Magdalena b. 1820 unmarried (4) Sarah b. 1822 married Adam Rosenberger (5) Levi b. 1824 married Eve Meyers (6) Jacob b. 1827 married (1) Lydia Beeghly and (2) Nancy Lambert (7) Mary b. 1827 married Jesse Knox (8) Ann b. 1829 married Bill Conn (9) Catherine b. 1833 married Samuel Rishel (10) Andrew b. 1836 married (1) Barbara Boger and (2) Hester Wilson Jacob M. was exceedingly active in the ministry and helped to build up the great Sandy Creek Congregation. He made missionary journeys with Elder Samuel A. Fike and others to the western and southern regions to plant the church. Biographies are given in Bittinger (1945), in Thomas (1939), Miller and Royer (35-37), and in Blough (546-550)." I have quite a bit of information about Jacob M. Thomas. His photo is in the book "Some Who Led". Have you seen it? Dianne