Hello Bonnie.

Just a suggestion, but the spelling that you have is not even a spelling that I've ever seen before: the Rasnike. I'm sure you're aware that as the very first Rasnick that we know of in North America, The spelling he took as well as children and grandchildren was RASNAKE. Personally, I think you should look through the Sutherland book and change the spellings of any memorials you're in charge of accordingly or I suppose you could put the spelling RASNAKE plus the RASNICK (like a slash)? I was looking for one of the Rasnicks and I couldn't even find Jacob because the way you had it spelled. Phyllis

Born: abt/1749 Watzendorf, Germany
Died: 1826 Glade Hollow,Lebanon, Russell County, VA

Jacob Rasnick, Sr. migrated to this country from Germany. Originally his name was Johann Jacob Rührschneck.

(The following info is exerpted from a publication entitled "Tracking and Connecting the RIERSCHNECKH - RÜHRSCHNECK - RUEHRSCHNECK -RUSHNECK - RASNAKE - RASNICK - RASNIC FAMILY)"
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Johann Jacob Rührschneck (Rierschneck) was the second child of farm servants Johann Georg Rührschneck and Anna Schwanzer. He was born in the tiny village of Irsingen on 17 Dec 1752 and was taken less than a mile away to St. Johannis Church in Aufkirchen to be christened on the same day. The district Aufkirchen was first mentioned in 1188, as a fortified town. It lies at the foot of the southern slope of the Hesselberg Mountain, which is the highest point in Mittelfranken. The church, built in 1514, contains "one of the oldest precious and magnificent Baroque organs known from 1663".

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He was taken from his home at the age of 24 and forced into service to fight against America. He was taken as a prison of war at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781.

To read more about Jacob Rasnick, Sr., read "Tracking and Connecting the RIERSCHNECKH - RÜHRSCHNECK - RUEHRSCHNECK -RUSHNECK - RASNAKE - RASNICK - RASNIC FAMILY." It can be found here: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jacobrasnickproject/

After the war, Jacob chose to stay in America and make his home in Virginia, where he met and married Mary Mollie Counts. We're not sure exactly how he came to find and stay with the Counts family, but we know he liked it well enought to stay and make his home there. His name appears in the 1783 Shenandoah County Tax List under the spelling "Reversnuck".

"On 25 February 1784, Jacob Rierschneck (recorded as "Reresnick"), married John Counts' daughter, Mary "Mollie" Counts ("Molly Countz") in Shenandoah County. The marriage was performed by an early German Baptist minister by the name of John Koontz (not Mollie's father)."

"Shenandoah and Russell County documents involving Jacob and his family have recorded their names in a variety of ways,including "Reversnuck", "Rosenake", "Raresnake",
"Rearsnake","Raresnick", "Raversnuck", "Reversnuk" and others. Over the years, the family name became Anglicized to "Rasnake", "Rasnick" and "Rasnic", which are the three main versions that his descendants use today."

"Jacob Rasnick died in December of 1826 at the age of 74. His will100 was probated in Russell County, VA on 2 January 1827 and is dated 24 November 1826. Mollie died a few years later, around 1834. Both Jacob and Mollie Counts Rasnick are buried in the family cemetery above their home place in Glade Hollow where a memorial, dedicated by their descendants, honors these early pioneers. It reads as follows:

"In fond memory of Jacob & Mollie Counts Rasnick,
Hessian Revolutionary War Soldier, and the parents of
all Rasnicks, Rasnakes, Rasnics."

Thus begins the story of the Rasnake/Rasnick Families in America.

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To read more about the life of Jacob Rasnick Sr., visit this website: Rasnick Family Genealogy