Continuing the discussion of what is a Germanna colonist, there were several more immigration movements from Nassau-Siegen. A group came in 1734 and landed in Philadelphia, which had become a favored landing spot. These people worked their way down to the First Colony and took up land in the adjoining county of Culpeper. Several of the names are recognizable for their relationship to the earlier members, as they were Fishbacks, Hoffman/Huffman, Otterbach, and Richter/Rector, but also Youngs and Nays.
Another group left Siegen in 1738. Individuals left in other years, again most commonly arriving at Philadelphia, but sometimes in other ports.
There was a whole series of individuals who came into the area of the Second Colony settlements. For purposes of illustration here, let's take the Reiner family. The wife of Michael Cook was Mary Barbara Reiner, and they came in 1717. In 1750, 33 years later, her brother, Hans Dieterich Reiner, and his family came to Philadelphia. The youngest son purchased 530 acres of land in that same year in Culpeper Co. Two of the daughters were married within the year in Culpeper Co.
These names illustrate that immigration was planned with a clear objective of where the people were going. It is obvious there was communication taking place between Virginia and Germany. The newcomers were a continuation of the movement started by the earlier Colonists. Often they were members of the same families. Henry Huffman came about 20 years after his brother John had come. Dieter Reiner came 33 years after his sister had come. While Henry and Dieter never had anything to do with Fort Germanna, most people would say that they should be included in the group of Germanna Colonists.
The common elements of all of these individuals is that they were German, and they lived east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the modern counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, and Rappahannock. West of the Blue Ridge Mountains there was the Shenandoah Valley with its own settlement pattern. There were some Germans east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in other counties.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.