Henry Shank (1787 - 1839)

D. Lee, these folks are my ancestors, and I have found it quite difficult to keep my place when trying to sort them out across the generations. The same names keep cropping up, and the spellings of the last name (Shank, Shenk, Schenck, etc.) can become bewildering.

R Prior, you are correct. My mistake as I was looking at the two back and forth and got confused. I think I've been staring at the screen too long.

As the profile manager of Shank-902, I concur with R. Prior and would not merge these two individuals.

Shank-852 and Shank-902 do not represent the same person because: These are father and son, not the same person.

In order to fit into a single proposed life, two issues must be resolved as follows: 1) There are two different headstones which clearly support the dates given for two different Henry Shanks, father and son; and 2) The first wife lived until 1819, but the second marriage is supposed to have occurred in 1813. Neither bigamy or divorce was the norm in early 19th century Virginia, so this is a major hurdle to overcome.

Maybe the referenced book has outstanding sources that can overcome both of these issues, but until those sources are provided, it's best to keep these profiles separated.

Shank-852 and Shank-902 appear to represent the same person because: According to the book Matohe (written by descendant Cathy Smoot Carson), Henry, the father of John Harrison Shank, was born on November 23, 1758. He had two wives, Anna Magdalena Reiff and Elizabeth Heatwole, and numerous children including Samuel Shank I who was born on October 12, 1790 and died Feb. 26, 1863.