The Christler family left Lambsheim in the Palatinate in 1719 and emigrated to Pennsylvania. One son, Johann Theobald Christler, was ten. In time, Theobald came to Virginia. He married Rosina Garr but whether this occurred in Pennsylvania or Virginia is not clear. It may be that they were married in Pennsylvania (he was 24 and she was 20 in 1733). The motivation for his moving to Virginia seems to be clear; either a family alliance had been formed or was to be formed. Theobald was deeded land in 1736.
Note that the date of the first land acquistion is not always a good clue as to when someone came. The Christlers (Crisler or Cristler also) came to Pennsylvania in 1719 but Theobald did not have land in Virginia until 1736. So far, several of the Virginia individuals came in 1719 and it appears to be a year of above average migration.
Frederick Baumgardner came through Philadelphia in 1732 from Schwaigern, the home of the Willheits and others. It is not surprising that Frederick went down to Virginia; his uncle was Johann Michael Willheit. Frederick had a younger brother, Gottfried, who settled in Pennsylvania. Frederick had a land grant in 1736 on a branch of Deep Run, a Robinson River tributary.
Mark Finks was living in Orange Co. in the early 1730's. He is an enigma as he was on the first grand jury impaneled Orange Co. This suggests he was familiar with the English language and perhaps was even an English citizen. This latter view is reinforced by the fact there is no naturalization known for him; however, the name Fink or Finks certainly suggests the German name Finck.
Lewis Fisher's arrival time is unknown but his oldest son appears to have been born about 1736 so Lewis probably arrived in the early 1730's.
All of the names that have been mentioned in the last few notes have lived in the Robinson River community where most of the Second Colony lived. Additions to the original core were made starting at an early date. One addition was from the First Colony as John Huffman moved down from Germantown to land next to his (second) wife's mother, Mrs. George Utz. This occurred about 1729.
John Kains or Kines patented 400 acres in the Robinson River area in 1736. Later in his will, he mentions his friends Harman Spilman and John Stonecipher, Jr. who have names more commonly associated with the First Colony as they were from the Nassau-Siegen area.
Matthias Kerchler proved his importation in Orange Co. in 1736. Peter Weaver used his headright in his (Weaver's) 400 acre patent in 1736. Hardly anything more is known about Kerchler.
Jacob Manspiel patented 400 acres of land in 1734.
To summarize, there was a big growth in the Germanna community, both in the First and Second Colonies in the early 1730's. The net of the growth of the original settlers and the influx of newcomers was that the Robinson River community reached a population of about 300 souls in 1736. The very first settlement along the Robinson, probably in 1725, had perhaps one-quarter of this number. So the community grew very fast in the first ten years.
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.