In this series discussing motivations for going to America, mention must be made of a reason which is simple to understand. That was a desire for adventure, most evident in the single males.
Looking at the First Colony, there were several bachelors: Melchoir Brumbach, John Hoffman, John Kemper, Joseph Martin, and John Spilman. Two of the Fishback men could have qualified as bachelors, but it would be unfair to count them, since they came with their total family of six. The bachelors probably could rationalize their investment in the trip by saying they could always return if it didn't work out. When they left Germany, they were under no particular pressure to provide for a family. One has to feel that a spirit of adventure contributed to their decision to go. That so many young single men were in the party may also say something about the economic conditions. Perhaps Albrecht, in his recruiting, may have attempted to maximize the return on the investment by recruiting bachelors without any overhead in the form of wives and children. To the bachelors, who had probably accumulated little capital, it was a means to get to America cheaply. On balance, the desire for adventure surely paid some part.
In the Second Colony, there were few bachelors. Mostly it was young families of a husband, wife, and a few children. One true bachelor was Michael Kaifer, and he was not totally alone. It could be said that he came with his sister Appollonia Kaifer, who was now married to John Nicholas Blankenbaker. Whether she was to watch out for him, or he was to help his sister and brother-in-law, or he was completely independent, is not clear.
A family could hardly rationalize a trip to America as adventure. Individual members of a family felt the pressure of the group. Within my own namesake family, it was headed by an older couple with three subfamilies from the wife's first marriage, an unmarried son by her second marriage, and two children from her third marriage. There may have been a daughter's family also, but we have no proof of that. It is just that we feel the pressure would have been intense on the daughter and husband to join the group. In this situation, where all of the family was going except for one member, pressure could have intense.
As we continue to look at the reasons that people came, we see that no single reason applied to all. Each individual had a mix of reasons in varying proportions.
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.