The January 2002 issue of Beyond Germanna was entirely devoted to the Andreas Gaar family and its history (in all of the ninety issues of BG this was the only time that this was done).  A lot is known about the Gaar family thanks to the work of the Garrs in their book of 1894 on the genealogy of the family.  This was a starting point for the research which was sponsored by the Theodore Walker family starting shortly after World War II.

The family hired a German-speaking researcher, who actually visited (or his agents did) the churches and looked at the books.  All together, a total of just less than fifty ancestors of Andreas Gaar and his wife Eva Seidelmann (the parents in the American immigrant family) were found.  For Eva, this went back to some of her great-great-great-great-grandparents who were born in pre-reformation times.  Most of her ancestors were Bavarians from the western part of Bavaria; however, she did have some ancestors from Austria.

Andreas' ancestors cannot be traced as far back as Eva's can.  This, in part, may be attributed to movement of the Gaar family in a westward direction across Bavaria.  Some of the Gaars in Bavaria today say that the family came from Austria originally, and this too may account for some of the difficulty in tracing them.

The oldest Gaar known, Hans Gahr was born about 1545 on the farm "Kolnpach", which is only about fifteen miles from the Austrian border today.

I digress now a little from the main story to recount our finding of Kolnpach.  What was recorded in the Gaar history seems to be an error, since we could find no Kolnpach.  But, as in most church records, the recording person probably just took a stab at spelling it as he heard it.  The obvious thing to do was to change the "p into a "b" but this still yielded no finds.  Substituting an "m" for the "n" yields to a well-known town, Kolmbach, but its location is inconsistent with the general movement of the Gaars and does not support Hans Gahr's vocation of farmer.  I finally found a gazetteer which showed the existence of a small Kolmbach in a location consistent with the history.  It was not all that specific but we figured that with a little on-the-spot searching we could find it.  In the day just before starting the search, our friend Jost Gudelius, using an ordinance map, plotted us a map showing its location.  Sure enough, when we got to within a mile or so of the farm, there were road signs pointing out the direction to take.  And so we were led to the farm, still named Kolmbach even after 450 years have passed by (it may have been an ancient name in 1545).  Our reception there was less than enthusiastic since only "grossmutter" was home and she did not speak English.  Furthermore, she did not trust anyone who came to the door, especially crazy Americans.
(23 Dec 03)

The question was asked as to which great-grandparents of Eva (Seidelmann) Gaar had the "large" wedding feast.  It was Sebastian Wambach and his wife Anna.  This is as far back as we know for this couple.  They are said to be from Austria, probably taken from the Church Books.  I don't know what a large wedding feast would be so I put the word in quotation marks.  There were 13 tables on the first day and 10 tables on the second day.  This sounded "large" to me but I do not know what the standards are.

I have made the comment that we know more about the Gaar family in Germany than we do for any other Germanna family.  We have some documentation on 46 ancestors of Andreas Gaar and his wife Eva.  I have made this assertion before and no one has offered a case with better statistics.  The results for the Gaars are the result of an active involvement in the church plus good research in Germany.

I think that I have been able to add a couple of small pieces of information to this, one of a corrective nature, and the other of an additional specification.  The German researcher had identified one place as Sinzing based on a reading of a Church Record.  Such a place does exist and is rational.  I believe, though, the more probable reading would be Zenzing.  Zenzing is not a very large place, but it has the advantage of adjacency to Walderbach, about two or three miles.  (The bride was from Walderbach and the groom was from Zenzing.)  The additional specification was the exact nature and location of Kolmbach, the farm recounted in the last note.

We did go to Zenzing where there is a small chapel which is beautifully painted.  It is surrounded by a half dozen farm houses.  A picture of it is on our photographic essay CD.

Among the identified occupations in Andreas Gaar's ancestry were master weaver, linen weaver, master weaver, cloth maker, locksmith, laborer, master baker, innkeeper, assistant judge, cloth maker, farmer, mason, baker.  Some men held two or three of these jobs.  In Eva Seidelmann's ancestry there were a farmer, linen weaver, weaver, master weaver, innkeeper, weaver, innkeeper, judge, mayor, and master baker.
(24 Dec 03)

One of the families in the Robinson River Valley about the time of the Revolution was the Nonnenmacher family.  There were the parents, Ludwig and Elizabeth, and, apparently, the sons Ludwig, Jr., and Johannes.  Ludwig, Jr., married Barbara Blankenbaker.  (See the Hebron Communion Lists by Mielke and Blankenbaker.)

It is interesting to note that the name Nonnenmacher is to be found today around Neuenb�rg, the home in Germany of the Blankenbakers.  This suggests some communication between the Blankenbakers in Virginia and the Nonnenmachers who were still in Germany.

The history of the Nonnenmachers is yet to be worked out in detail.  Some of them are to be found in Jeffersontown in Kentucky at an early date, which suggests that perhaps the Blankenbakers and Nonnenmachers were continuing to follow the same paths.

Some people have wondered if the Nonnenmachers became Moneymakers.  Others believe that the source of the Moneymaker name is in Ludwig Geldmacher who was a British auxiliary in the Revolution.  Since Geldmacher translates into Moneymaker directly, there is a justification for this viewpoint.

This Ludwig Geldmacher was from Wolfhagen, Hessen, where the family has been identified.  Ludwig was with the von Rall Grenadier Regiment which was captured at the battle of Trenton.  Apparently Ludwig never fought again.  He seems to have been freed on a work release to work with local farmers.  One son of this Ludwig (there were three children) was William, who moved to Tennessee after his father�s death in 1813.

There seems to an association with the names of Baumgardner (Bumgardner) and Gabbert.  These two surnames are in the Germanna community, so the thought that Ludwig Geldmacher might be associated with the Germanna community arises.  I have looked at the Bumgardner and Gabbert histories and I see nothing which would identify the Germanna people in these two families with Ludwig Geldmacher (Moneymaker).

It is to be hoped that the Nonnenmacher history will be more completely developed.  When it is, I would not be surprised that the Nonnenmachers originated in the Kraichtal (not to be confused with the neighboring Kraichgau).
(30 Dec 03)

The January 1990 issue of Penn Pal, the newsletter of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Palatines to America, carried an article by Klaus Ahne on "The Beginnings of German Emigration to America".  The material from Penn Pal appeared in Beyond Germanna, page 409.

German emigration to America began on 6 October 1683 when thirteen families from Krefeld landed in Philadelphia.  More than seven million German-speaking emigrants followed these in the next three centuries, more than from any other country.  Prior to 1683, there had been a few Germans who came to America, but 1683 marks the start of a permanent German settlement.  Why this one particular group came then is closely tied to one German, Franz Daniel Pastorius.

One can hardly discuss this man without mentioning his father and grandfather.  The two, plus the tumultuous events of the Seventeenth Century, shaped Franz Daniel Pastorius.  The grandfather was Catholic, a citizen of Erfurt.  During the Thirty Years' War, their house was ransacked by the Protestant Swedes in 1631 and the family fled.  The grandfather was attacked by bandits and so badly injured that he died shortly thereafter.

The father, Adam Melchior Pastorius, born in 1624, was sent to be taught by the Jesuits in Rome.  Then he went to Paris as a scholar.  In the political uprisings there, he was almost executed as a spy.  In 1649, he went to Sommerhausen on the River Main, where he became a Protestant, married, and started a law practice.  In 1658, he moved to Windsheim, where he gained wealth and fame.  He served as a judge and the mayor.  A street in Windsheim is named for him, the Pastorius-Strasse.

The son, Franz Daniel Pastorius, was born in 1651 and moved with the family to Windsheim, an imperial city, in 1658.  He spent his youth here and received his first education there.  He studied Law at the universities of Altdorf, Strassburg, Basel, and Jena.  As was typical of education is those days, he also studied philosophy and theology.  His education culminated in a Doctor of Law in 1676, and he returned to Windsheim to work as a lawyer.  Shortly thereafter, he moved to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he continued his law practice.  From 1680 to 1682, he traveled throughout Germany, Holland, France, England, and Switzerland as a companion to the nobleman Johann Bonaventura von Rodeck.

A deeply religious and moral person, Franz Daniel Pastorius was extremely disappointed at the lack of piety and the shallow attitude of the people he had met in his two years of traveling.  By chance, he was introduced to the Frankfurt Pietists, whose religious ideas fascinated him.

The people who influenced Franz Daniel Pastorius in Frankfurt were the followers of Phillip Jacob Spener, who in turn had been influenced by William Penn.  In August of 1677, in anticipation of his claim to Pennsylvania, William Penn was on his second trip along the Rhine River.  He had multiple motivations including the sale of his land in Pennsylvania and the advancement of the Quaker religion.  His major themes were piece and happiness in America, free of religious or superior authority.

The Pietists, who were dissatisfied with the religious situation and wanted more freedom in the Protestant teachings, were the first to decide to follow Penn's calling and to emigrate to a new, unspoiled country.  They joined the Frankfurt Land Company with the goal of acquiring land in America and helping the emigrants.

Pastorius was fascinated by the plan to emigrate.  He became a member of the Land Company, working toward achieving its goals.  The other members recognized his ability and devotion to the cause and made him the Secretary of the Frankfurt Land Company.

Had it not been for Pastorius, the whole scheme would probably have failed.  As the date for emigration grew closer, the original members started selling their memberships.  Speculators entered the picture, but without a desire to emigrate themselves.  Pastorius had to look hard for replacements.  He traveled widely to spread the thought of the original purposes.  In Krefeld he stayed with a Mennonite family and worked closely with the Mennonites.  Perhaps they were more receptive because, like William Penn's Quakers, they did not believe in oaths, original sin, christenings, or military action.  Because they did not believe in military actions, their fellow citizens did not trust them.  Under these conditions, the arguments of Pastorius were well received.

Pastorius went on to Rotterdam, where there were both Quakers and Mennonites.  He conferred with Penn's agents, Benjamin Furley and Jakob Teiner, who had good connections with the Quakers in London and New York.  Rather quickly, Pastorius went on to London and then to America, where he arrived at Philadelphia on 20 August 1683.  There, he reached an agreement with Penn about land for the immigrants.  Hard on the heels of Pastorius was a group of families, largely Mennonites, who arrived in October.

Pastorius had 6,000 acres of land from Penn for the immigrants to settle on.  This was about six miles northwest of original Philadelphia (now a part of present-day Philadelphia).  Forty-four had left Germany but forty-five arrived in Pennsylvania even after one death on the trip.
(07 Jan 04)

The question was raised recently about the wife of John Frey.  Virginia Frey (Fray) Lewis has stated that John's wife was Rebecca Yowell.  There is no question but that her given name was Rebecca, but, as B. C. Holtzclaw pointed out, there is no evidence that a Rebecca Yowell ever existed.  He did not go on to suggest who she might have been.  Fortunately, we have the baptismal records at the German Lutheran Church in Culpeper County (now Hebron and now in Madison County) to rely on.

The problem is that people do not want to take the time to study documents such as the baptismal register to understand what it is telling us.  They want the answer laid out in black and white so that it can be grasped in sixty seconds.  Some of our best evidence, though, takes more study to understand what it is telling us.

This is another case of studying the community versus studying just one individual.  In the Eighteenth Century, there were many events that were either not recorded, or such records no longer exist; we can search forever and not find any records of marriages or other events for some individuals.  Documents such as the Baptismal Register at the Hebron Church tell us a lot, though, because of the rigorous patterns of behavior the people followed.

We soon learn that sponsors at the baptisms of infants were not randomly chosen, but were usually chosen for being relatives by blood or marriage.  When we look at the baptisms in which John and Rebecca Frey participated, we find a confirmation of this.

John Frey and Rebecca, his wife, chose Michael Schwindle (her brother) and Hanna (Weaver) Swindle (her sister-in-law).  Michael Schwindel and Elisabetha (Utz), his wife, chose Rebecca Frey.  Then, for Peter Klor (Clore) and Maria, his wife, Rebecca Frey was chosen twice.  Had she been a Yowell, there would have been no relationship to Peter or to Mary (Frey); however, as a Schwindel, Rebecca was a sister-in-law to Mary Frey.

These relationships have made the study of the records at the German Lutheran Church such a fascinating study.  Not only are they informative and just loaded with genealogical information, they tell us something about the customs in the community.  In many cases, they are the only sources of information that is available to us.

For this reason, I have published a 52-page booklet on the baptisms at the church in which I have tried to identify every individual by his or her relationship to others in the community.  For more information, contact me by email at:

In the last note, I claimed that the people at the German Lutheran Church in the Robinson River Valley, during the period from 1750 to 1800, acted in a narrow range of ways that permits us to deduce some relationships among the people.  The ways in which they acted were not unusual; in fact, they are probably the way in which many of us would act today.

There is certainly one individual in the community who seems to defy the logic that we have grown to expect.  That is Elizabeth, the wife of Matthias Weaver.  If one went by the records at the church, one would conclude that she was a Carpenter.  We have a will, though, by Mark Finks in which he refers to his daughter, Elizabeth Weaver.  This leaves us with the question of why she would act so much like a Carpenter.

This has been a topic of conversation between Nancy Dodge and me.  We throw "what if" scenarios at each other (on a variety of subjects) without necessarily asking that the other one believe it.  One time, Nancy threw out the idea that Mark Finks had been married twice.  Such an idea is not extreme.  There have probably been several cases of remarriages that we know nothing about.

What I liked about this idea is that it could be the answer to why Elizabeth Finks acted as though she were a Carpenter.  Suppose that a first wife of Mark Finks (the Senior) died at child birth but the infant, Elizabeth, lived.  Now Mark would have the problem caring for Elizabeth.  Suppose that Barbara Carpenter, the wife of John, stepped forward and suggested to Mark that he let her care for the baby Elizabeth.  Perhaps Elizabeth was raised by the Carpenters.  There was no question of her not being a Finks and she was remembered in her biological father's will but not in John Carpenter's will.

I wanted to mention this because the idea that EVERYONE acts in a well-defined way is not true.  There are exceptions.  Perhaps these exceptions are just telling us something deeper.  On the whole though, the patterns of behavior at the German Lutheran Church are well defined in the last half of the Eighteenth Century.  They are worth studying.  But one must be prepared for some unusual and very interesting cases.
(16 Jan 04)

In the current issue of Mennonite Family History (January 2004), there is an article on the emigration from Steffisburg, Switzerland, to Ste. Marie-Aux-Mines in Alsace of many Anabaptist families late in the Seventeenth Century.  At this time, about 1690, there was no distinction between the Mennonites and Amish.

Anabaptist thought and practices found many converts in the second half of the Seventeenth Century in the region of Steffisburg.  This led to increase in persecution of the Anabaptists there.  Jacob Ammann, who led the group which became known in our modern English as Amish, had moved to the Alsace already.  Seeking new recruits to his beliefs, he visited Steffisburg, where he found an excellent reception.  As a result, many families emigrated from Steffisburg to Alsace, especially in light of the persecution in Steffisburg..

One list of names of emigrants has been preserved.  There are interesting names, especially for me, in this list.  Two successive names in the list are Jacob Her (Herr) and Ulrich Kilchhoffer (Killheffer).  Now, my son-in-law is Robert E. Killheffer and he descends from Hans Herr with only the change of name from Herr to Killheffer.

Some of the other names on the list of emigrating people are Danner (known today as Tanner), Gerber, Rupp, and several Zimmermans.  The mention of Zimmermans sent me to the ancestry of Christopher Zimmerman, Germanna immigrant of 1717, where I found that he had ancestors from Steffisburg.  Christopher Zimmerman's ancestors left Steffisburg before the Anabaptists had made major gains.  Still he might be related to some of the Zimmermans on the Anabaptist list.

At the minimum, I throw this out for the recurrence of the names known in other contexts.  At the best, it might give us more insight into our collective Germanna ancestry.

*****

Eleanor and I are going to Albuquerque to see a young lady and we will be gone about three weeks.  I do not expect to be involved in the list here for that time.  Some of you wanted to buy some things from me.  If I have your email order by 8 A.M. Saturday (tomorrow) morning, I will attempt to have the items in Saturday's mail (I will bill you later).  Monday is a holiday at the Post Office and we will be on the road by Tuesday.
(17 Jan 04)

In reading an old issue of Beyond Germanna, in an article about the Mount Pony Settlement, there was a mention of several names who have been mentioned in recent times here.  Christopher Zimmerman had several patents - the first was 24 Jun 1726, and this was followed by other patents and purchases.  One of his tracts was very close to the land where later the Rev. Thompson built Salubria for his bride, the former Mrs. Spotswood.  Other known Germans in the area included Conrad Amberger, Frederick Kabler, and Joseph Cooper.

Barbara Cooper died in Orange County in 1735 and the administrator was Jacob Prosie.  On his bond there were Jacob Miller and John Vaught.  Her estate was appraised by Christopher Zimmerman, Frederick Cobler (Kabler), and Charles Morgan.  The appearance of several German names makes it probable that the Coopers were German.

The Prosie name may be a mistake.  I don't believe that he has ever been identified.  Two of the names, Jacob Miller and John Vaught, have an association with the Shenandoah Valley, at least in the near future.  The choice of Vaught is strange because he never lived in the Mt. Pony area.  At least, he did not have land in this area.  For him to come about fifteen miles surely indicates that he had some connection to Barbara Cooper.  Possibly though his connection was to Jacob Prosie.

An Adam Yeager also had land in this area.  Conrad Amberger originally had land in the Mt. Pony area but he moved farther west.  His new land was near John Paul Vaught's patent.  Another name to think about is Joseph Bloodworth (Bludwert?).
(19 Jan 04)

Our recent travels took us to New Mexico where we visited the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe.  This is the oldest government building in the United States having been built about 1610.  One item that we were hoping to see was the Segasser Hide Paintings, which have one of the earliest depictions of the North American continent.  These important documents, which were on display last year, have been withdrawn so that a permanent room to display them could be refinished.

Several rooms in the "Palace" have a display on the contribution of Germans to New Mexico's history after it became a part of the United States in 1848.  It was a popular destination for many German Jews, who often went first into trade and then became lawyers, judges, and ranchers.

About one hundred German Jews have been identified who were early arrivals.  Surprisingly (hardly to us), many of these people were related in Germany and after their arrival in New Mexico they often married other of the German Jewish immigrants.  Their occupations in Germany were marginal and of the lowest sort.  In New Mexico, they blossomed into being leading citizens.  Some of their motivations were religious, some were political, but it appears that the major influence was the prospect of a better living.

All of this should sound familiar to Germanna descendants for the same reasons held true for their ancestors.  Some Germanna immigrants who owned next to nothing in Germany became owners of thousands of acres in Virginia.  Though their faith differed, there was an element of religious reasons for coming, but it generally paled in significance to the economic question.  Questions of freedom and/or oppression had a role to play.

In Siegen the warring Princes, one Catholic and one Protestant, had shut down the economic life of the region in 1713 by their squabbling.  In the Kraichgau, the various princes were trying to exert more control and to extract more taxes.  The top ranks of the citizens had little motivation to leave.  The lowest rank could not afford to leave.  The "middle" group yielded the most emigrants.  It made little difference whether one was Protestant or Jewish.  There were many similarities in their motivations and in the results.

****

I am working on putting out some information on a CD.  I am curious whether the owners of the Germanna Villages Photographic Essay have had problems in using it.  If you have, I would like to hear from you.
(10 Feb 04)

Sgt. George forwarded a request from a person who was confused about the Carpenters and Zimmermans.  Since others might also be confused, I thought that I would reply to the list here.

The questioner states that there were two sets of Carpenters/Zimmermans.  This is correct.  The Zimmerman set was headed by Christopher Zimmerman who lived in the Mt. Pony area.  He was a cooper from Sulzfeld in Germany who came in 1717.  (A neighbor of his was another cooper, Frederick Kabler who also came from Sulzfeld.)  Christopher Zimmerman had several children, but one of the children, John, lived in the Robinson River Valley.  This John married Ursula Blankenbaker.  None of these Zimmermans ever used the name Carpenter, as far as we know.

The Carpenter set was headed by the brothers William and John, who came to Virginia in 1720.  They never appear in the civil records as Zimmermans, as they seem to have converted to the use of Carpenter quite early.  At the church, they were called Zimmermans SOMETIMES.  (The grandson, Rev. William Carpenter was referred to as Zimmerman in records of the Synod until about 1800.)

The original John Carpenter married Barbara Kerker.  He had children Michael, John, William, and Andrew.  The original William had no children, so all of the Carpenters came down from the John who married Barbara Kerker.

[To correct some recent mistakes that I have made, I review the situation in the Thomas family.]

Anna Maria Blanckenbuehler was the youngest child of Anna Barbara Schoen and Johann Thomas Blanckenbuehler.  She was born 5 May 1687.  She had three older siblings, Hans Niclas, Hans Balthasar, and Hans Matthias.  However, Anna Maria was the first to marry, even though she was 24 when she married.  She married Johann Thomas, the son of Albrecht Thomas, in 1711.  Two surviving children, Hans Wendel Thomas and Anna Magdalena Thomas, were born in Germany on 17 April 1712 and 24 November 1715, respectively.

In Virginia, John Thomas and Anna Maria Blanckenbuehler were the parents of two more children, Michael and Margaret.  Then the father, John Thomas, died and Anna Maria Blankenbaker Thomas married Michael Kaifer/Kaefer.  Michael Kaifer in his will names five daughters and their husbands, though the spelling is so atrocious that the actual identity of one husband was uncertain until a few years ago.  Since Anna Maria Blankenbaker Thomas Kaifer was the mother of nine surviving children plus one who died early, and since the mother did not have any children until she was 24, we have a good idea about when the children were born, even in Virginia.  We do not know the sequence of some of the children.

The four children of John Thomas and Anna Maria Blanckenbuehler married as follows (to the extent that it is known):

1. John Wendel Thomas was married twice and the maiden names of his wives are unknown.
2. Michael Thomas was married twice.  The maiden name of his first wife is unknown.  His second wife is said to be Eva Susanna Margaret Hart, but no proof of this is known.
3. Anna Magdalena Thomas married John Michael Smith, Jr.  Their children are known from gifts of land made by John Michael and Anna Magdalena.
4. Margaret Thomas married Henry Aylor.  Some say that this was his second wife, but I know of no evidence that he was married twice.

Maybe in the next note, I can review the children of John Wendel Thomas and his first wife.
(12 Feb 04)

I continue with the children of John Wendel Thomas.  Late in his life, John Wendel Thomas made gifts of land to three men, his sons-in-law.  A fourth man, John Railsback, also his son-in-law, got twice as much land, but he paid some money for part of it.  Thus it appears that the original intention may have been to divide the land of John Wendel Thomas into five parts for five heirs but before the division was made one heir opted out or died.

The four known children of John Wendel Thomas, all women, were:

1. Susanna, who married Jacob Holtzclaw.
2. Mary, who married Joseph Holtzclaw.
3. Mary Barbara, who married Jacob Blankenbaker.
4. Elizabeth, who married John Railsback.  John got twice as much land but he did pay some cash for part of it.

There is a hint that the fifth part had been intended for a son, Michael Thomas, who moved to North Carolina.  We have no proof of this but the story that the descendants of the North Carolina Michael Thomas tell is so suggestive, taken with the apparent fivefold land division in Virginia, that this Michael can be considered as a probable son of John Wendel Thomas.

The immigrant Hans Jacob Holtzclaw had five sons.  The descendants of two of these sons have a Blankenbaker ancestor.  Joseph Holtzclaw, the son who married Mary Thomas, was married a second time to Elizabeth Zimmerman.  But this Elizabeth also had a Blankenbaker ancestor as her father was John Zimmerman and her mother was Ursula Blankenbaker.

I have always been fascinated by the appearance of the widow Catherine Russell Thomas who married John Holtzclaw.  Was the first husband of this Catherine related to the Robinson River Thomases?  Were these Thomas families acquainted and is this the reason that Jacob and Joseph Holtzclaw came down from Fauquier County and married two Thomas girls?

I think there are more Holtzclaw and Blankenbaker connections than we know right now.
(13 Feb 04)

If we want to study how several Germanna families are related, we should go back in time as far as we can.  I will start with Anna Barbara Schoen who was born 29 Sep 1666.  As her first husband, she married John Thomas Blankenbaker.  For her second husband she married Johann Jacob Schlucter.  Her third husband was Cyriacus Fleshman.  So right away the Blankenbakers, Schlucters, and the Fleshmans share a common ancestor.

We do not know if there are any descendants of Henry Schlucter, Anna Barbara's son, who did come to Virginia and who appears to have married a Sarah.

If we look at the two daughters of Balthasar Blankenbaker, a son of Anna Barbara, we see that his daughter Anna Barbara married Ludwig Fisher.  We believe that all of the Germanna Fishers descend from Ludwig so all of the Fishers have an ancestor in Anna Barbara Schoen.  The other daughter, Elizabeth, married Adam Wayland.  A fair percentage of the Waylands, but still a minority of them, have Anna Barbara Schoen also for an ancestor.

Of the four Garr children of Andreas and Eva, three of them married descendants of Anna Barbara.  Anyone today with the Garr name inherited from the Germanna Garrs would have an ancestor in Anna Barbara Schoen.

There were two Kaefer people who emigrated to Virginia.  Apollonia Kaefer married Nicholas Blankenbaker, and Michael Kaefer married Anna Maria Blankenbaker, as her second husband.  Therefore, anyone claiming a Germanna Kaefer/Kaifer as an ancestor would have Anna Barbara as an ancestor.

Since the immigrant John Michael Smith has only one son who married Anna Magdalena Thomas, all of the descendants below John Michael Smith, Jr. have Anna Barbara as a person in their lineage.

Two of the three Barlow sons married descendants of Anna Barbara via Catherine Fleshman and Mary Smith of John Michael Smith, Jr.

We recently saw that two of the five sons of the immigrant Jacob Holtzclaw have Anna Barbara as an ancestor.  The descendants of John Railsback also have Anna Barbara.

I believe that Henry Aylor married Margaret Thomas and so all of his descendants have Anna Barbara.

I was only attempting to name families where a sizeable percentage of the descendants have Anna Barbara Schoen for an ancestor.  Did I miss some?
(17 Feb 04)

Anna Barbara Schoen was only sixteen when she married John Thomas Blankenbaker.  She lived long enough to have three husbands and seven surviving children.  There is another woman in the Germanna community who had a similar record.  That was Susanna Klaar/Clore who married Phillip Joseph Weber in Germany.  Her age at this marriage was about fifteen to judge by the estimate of her age when she left Germany.

In Germany, six children were born to Susanna Klaar/Clore, but only two survived, Hannss Dieterich (who became Peter Weaver in Virginia), and Maria Sophia (who married Peter Fleshman in Virginia).  In addition, one other child, Walburga, appears to have been born en route to Virginia.  This "Burga" became the wife of John Willheit in Virginia.  Phillip Joseph Weber died in Virginia, perhaps shortly after arrival.

Susanna Clore Weaver married, secondly, Jacob Crigler.  By Jacob, she had two sons, Christopher and Nicholas.  It had not been generally recognized, but it definitely appears that she also had two daughters by Jacob; Elizabeth, who married Michael Yager; and Susanna, who married Michael Utz.

After Jacob died, Susanna married Nicholas Yager, whom she also outlived.  There were no children by this marriage.

There was a total of seven surviving children.  Thus, Anna Barbara and Susanna each married when they were about sixteen, and each had seven surviving children.  Each had three husbands.

Because all of the Second Colony Weavers descend from Peter Weaver, they can all claim a Clore ancestry.  All of the surname Fleshman can also claim a Clore ancestry, because Peter Fleshman married a girl whose mother's maiden name was Clore.  All of the Criglers can also claim a Clore ancestor.

The Fleshman descendants can claim both Anna Barbara Schoen and Susanna Klaar/Clore.

Had the parents of either of these two girls been opposed to an early marriage, I would not be here today.  (Maybe they opposed and the couple "eloped".)
(18 Feb 04)

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time at the local LDS Family History Center trying to read the microfilm for Sulzfeld.  This was the home of the Uhl (Yowell), Kabler, and Zimmerman families.  Only the last family has many mentions in the church books.  It had been reported by Margaret James Squires that on two occasions the sponsors for Christopher Zimmerman had been Anna Barbara Fisher and Ludwig Fisher (once each).  Sure enough, I did find the baptismal records with these sponsors.

I am looking for other occurrences of the Fischer name in Sulzfeld, but so far I have not found any.  There are two words after the name of Ludwig Fischer, but I have not deciphered them yet.  One could be �B�rger�, which would simply mean �citizen�.  The next word might be the name of an occupation, or a place name, so I will want to study it carefully.

We did have a Ludwig and Anna Barbara (Blankenbaker) Fisher in Virginia, though the ones in Virginia are not old enough to be the sponsors in Sulzfeld.  But, since John Zimmerman in Virginia married a Blankenbaker, and since Ludwig Fisher in Virginia married a Blankenbaker, the combination of names, especially in finding a Fischer sponsor for a Zimmerman in Sulzfeld is especially interesting.

An Ortssippenbuch for Sulzfeld is in preparation, I have heard.  I could wait for this to come out, but all of this is also a part of my study of the German script.

While looking at the information (the quality of which is not good), I did spot the name Krieger several times.  Andreas feels that this is not a satisfactory name for Crigler in Virginia because of the lack of the �l� in German.  But I am stubborn enough to keep noting the occurrences of the Krieger name that I find.
(19 Feb 04)

Yesterday morning, I tackled the problem of what the words were after Ludwig Fischer in the baptismal report at Sulzfeld for one of the Zimmerman babies.  After a little study, I felt that it said �B�rger zu Tiefenbach�.  This means that he was a citizen of Tiefenbach and not a local man.

Breaking out my detailed map book, I looked in the vicinity of Sulzfeld.  There was no point in looking very far away from Sulzfield as the kid was born one day and baptized the next day.  So the sponsors could not have lived too far away.  There was no Tiefenbach, but there was a Diefenbach, and this is an allowable substitute.  Diefenbach is five miles south of Sulzfeld, three miles southeast of Oberderdingen, where Matthias Blankenbaker married, four miles southwest of Zaberfeld, from where the K�fers came, and seven miles north of �tisheim where John and Ursula Broyles lived.  So far this was encouraging.

Going to the online card catalog of the LDS, I find that they recognize Diefenbach but that they have no microfilm for the Protestant church there.  They do have a book, Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach, which has the family genealogies all worked out; however, this book cannot be microfilmed.  I did try to order copies of some pages from this book using their online system but it didn�t work.  They suggested that I visit my local FHC and get the forms there.  In the afternoon I did go to the local FHC, but they could not find the forms.  The lady helping me also suggested that was not a good route to go because they sometimes take months to answer the request.  She then suggested, or told me, that she was going to Salt Lake City next week and she would be happy to make me copies if I would give her the information.  Now that is what I call real service.

I was also pursuing another approach.  An online search for �Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach� told me that it a 200 page book that was self-published about the year 2000 by a Professor in Germany.  I found his address and sent an email to a friend in Germany who phoned the Professor.  He learned that the Professor was on vacation for a few days.  His wife did not know if copies of the book were still available.  So I am still waiting for information from there.

I have high hopes that the book may prove very helpful in Germanna research.  It is especially important because the church records, if any, perhaps have never been used in Germanna research.  It may represent a trove of untapped information.

Does anyone live in Salt Lake City?

Let me emphasize that the Ludwig Fischer of the Zimmerman baptismal report may have no relationship to the Ludwig Fischer of Germanna.  But it is worth pursuing.
(20 Feb 04)

To recap, I noticed that there is a Diefenbach about five miles south of Sulzfeld.  I have also now noticed there is a Tiefenbach that is about six miles northwest of Sulzfeld.  Since the Zimmerman Baptismal Record that referred to Ludwig Fischer actually said Tiefenbach, I have perhaps been in error in mentioning Diefenbach.  This is one of the hazards of German research.  Names do change and there are many similar names.  The net result is that I will have to search in both of these villages.  It could be either one.

In favor of Tiefenbach:  It is not far from Neuenb�rg where the Blankenbakers lived, and the Ludwig Fisher in Virginia did marry Anna Barbara Blankenbaker.  Tiefenbach has a Catholic church, but then Neuenb�rg had only a Catholic church and the Blankenbakers were definitely Protestant.  The net result, though, is that the Fischers, if Protestant and residents of Tiefenbach, may have gone to church in some adjacent village that had a Protestant church, as the Blankenbakers did.  Given the baptismal record and the nearness to Neuenb�rg, I will have to order the microfilms (available through the LDS) and look.  Then I may want to expand to nearby villages, especially ones with Protestant churches.  (Whoever said the process was straightforward was wrong.)

In favor of Diefenbach:  It has a Protestant church and is slightly closer to Sulzfeld.  Against Diefenbach:  The spelling in the Zimmerman Baptismal Record was actually Tiefenbach.  Since last week when the LDS online catalog reported they had no microfilm for Diefenbach, they now report that there are three microfilms.  I will have to order the microfilms through the LDS and look at them.  The book, �Diefenbach Ortssippenbuch�, is available at the Library of Congress.  I believe that a couple of years ago Eleanor and I did look at this without any positive results.  I will probably want to look at it again.

At this point, I want to order the microfilms and study them.

Whenever one starts examining the villages around Sulzfeld or in that region in general, one is always impressed by the number of Germanna names that one encounters.  It always looks as if it were Germanna country.

Off to the LDS Family History Center (FHC).
(24 Feb 04)

A genealogy conference which is coming in April might be of interest to readers here.  The Virginia Genealogical Society will hold its Spring Conference at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.  The date is Saturday, the 17th of April, 2004.

The 9:00 AM speaker is Dorothy Boyd-Rush, who is known to us on the list here.  The title of her talk is "Early Handwriting and Accurate Transcriptions".  This probably emphasizes English writing.  In earlier days English and German handwriting often shared many characteristics.  Dorothy is a research historian at James Madison University and a professional genealogist.

Marty Hiatt will give the second talk of the day under the title "Abstracting".  Marty is a full time genealogist who specializes in the families of Northern Virginia.  She edits and publishes "Northern Virginia Genealogy".  She is Chairman of the Virginia Institute of Genealogical Research.  For fun, she abstracts court records and browses in cemeteries.

After lunch, at 1:15 PM, Barbara Vines Little will speak under the title of "Documentation for Everyday".  Barbara should be well known to readers here.  She occasionally contributes to the List and has been a conference speaker on many occasions, including once at a Germanna Seminar.  She has been a professional genealogist for more than twenty years.  She specializes in Virginia record sources, tax records, land platting, and neighborhood reconstruction.  She is an ex-President of the Virginia Genealogical Society.

Then at 2:45 PM, you may chose one of the following "Hands-On Sessions":

1. "Tricky Transcription", by Dorothy Boyd-Rush;
2. "Abstracting", by Mary Hiatt; or
3. "Documenting Non-Traditional Sources", by Barbara Vine Little.

In the days before or after the conference, you can research at the Virginia State Library.

The pre-registration fee is $35 for members and $40 for nonmember.  These fees increase by $5 after 5 April 2004.

There will be vendor tables that you can visit during the breaks.  Registration includes lunch.  If you want to use the form that VGS provides or you just want more information, you may contact them:

From some of the email that I have seen, I judge there is confusion about the material that has been published about the Germanna Colonies.  I will ignore entirely the individual family histories.

There is another Spring meeting of a genealogical society that I want to bring to your attention  The Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society is meeting on 24 April 2004, at the Comfort Inn Conference Center in Bowie, Maryland.

For four presentations, there are two speakers, Barbara Vines Little and John T. Humphrey  The four talks are:

1. Taxes:  Milk Them for All They're Worth, by Ms. Little.
2. Finding German Ancestors in the Nation's Capitol, by Mr. Humphrey.
3. Teasing the Silent Women from the Shadow of History, by Ms. Little.
4. Using German Church Records in Germany and the U.S., by Mr. Humphrey.