The members, including one conjectured family, of the First Germanna Colony has been given. A list of names which are the candidates for the Second Germanna Colony has also been given. A few other families have also been mentioned in an incidental way. It is the intention now to add to these names those families who came in the time up to about 1733. I do not believe there were any additional Germans who were added to the First Colony in this period. There were, though, several marriages to the people in the English community.
The frequency of mixed nationality marriages is very much a function of the size of the communities. The Second Colony which has the largest number of Germans had the fewest marriages to the English in the early years. The First Colony which had fewer Germans had more marriages sooner with the English. There is another group of Germans, very few in number, who lived in the Mt. Pony area. This group moved the most rapidly to become assimilated into the English speaking world. They learned to speak English very quickly and adopted the Church of England as their church. By the 1730's, Christopher Zimmerman, from the Mt. Pony group, was a Lt. in the militia. At the other extreme, in the Robinson River community which had the most Germans, the elders forbid the pastor, William Carpenter, from speaking English in the community. This was after the Revolutionary War, a full fifty years after the community was formed.
Several Germans probably came in 1719. One who testified at his headright application that he did come then was Fredrick Cobler (Kabler) who came with his wife Barbara. The Germanna Record (6) suggests that Nicholas and Christopher Kabler came also but the headright application does not support the idea.
Another, probably from that same year, was Johann Michael Willheit (Wilhite, Willhoit, etc.) with his wife Mary (Hengsteler) and children Tobias, John, and Adam who was born about the time of arrival. No date exists to pin down his arrival except his land patent was 1728 while the people with the best claim to First Colony membership had their patents in 1726.
Other Germans who came early include William Carpenter and his brother John. It appears that these Zimmermans found there was already a Zimmerman family here so William and John anglicized their name almost at once to Carpenter. By 1726, William Carpenter used the Carpenter name in applying for his headright, saying he came in 1721. William testified he came with his wife Elizabeth. John Carpenter was not yet married.
Robert Turner or Tanner (Gerber) testified he came in 1720 with his wife Mary and children Christopher, Christiana, Katherine, Mary and Parva (Barbara). Just recently we were looking at one of his land patents.
A John Broyles, supposed son of John and Ursula Broyles, who were Second Colony members, never existed, as is reported in the Germanna Records. There was no such individual; the court records for a John Bell were misread as John Broyles (Briles).
Another individual who was granted land in 1728 was John Rouse (Rausch?).
Thomas Wayland testified in his headright application that he came with his wife Mary and children, Jacob and Catherine, but he did not give a date. Like Michael Willheit and John Rouse, he too received his land patent in 1728 so he also may have arrived about 1719.
Christopher Yowell also got his land in 1728 so he is another candidate for arrival in 1719.
Perhaps because it does appear that several families came in 1719, there has arisen the idea there was a Third Germanna Colony of as many as forty families. Probably it would be best to note that individuals did arrive that year but they do not seem to be an organized or even a connected group of people. At this time, it seem best to drop the phrase, "Third Colony", and not to use it.
Germanna Record Six gives some individuals in the context that they were slightly later arrivals after the First and Second Colony members. John Justus Albrecht (Albright) came with the First Colony as the "Head Miner". The Folg family was represented only by children, and they came with the Second Colony. They were stepdaughters of George Utz.
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.