Peter Pinnegar purchased 275 acres from John Deer and his wife Catherine in 1778. The land was located in the Goard Vine Fork of the Rappahannock River (in the area now Rappahannock Co.). Peter moved to NC before 1793 in company with the Flinchums, Zimmermans, and Ziglars where they lived together and intermarried. The German origins of Peter Benninger of Epfenbach (Kreis Sinsheim) are given in Don Yoder's book, " Rhineland Emigrants ". He was permitted to emigrate in 1751 with his wife and four children. In the previous year Leonhardt Ziegler was denied permission to emigrate to Pennsylvania. The association of the Ziegler and Benninger names in Germany and Virginia makes it clear that the families have likely been identified. Why the families moved to Virginia is not clear except that Epfenbach is not very far from the German homes of many Germanna settlers.
The name Preiss occurs at the Hebron church. It is probably a German spelling of the name Price. Still, the family does seem to be associated with the German community.
George Adam Raüser (Racer, Rasor, Razor) came to America from Germany on the ship "Mary and Sarah" in 1754. The same ship carried George Ludwig Nonnenmacher. George Razor married Margaret ____ in New Jersey, where he lived before Virginia. In 1774, George bought 100 acres in the Robinson River community from the Baumgardners. In the next 14 years, the family can be found in the Hebron records. About 1794, George Razor, Sr., with his sons Peter and Christian, his son-in-law George Swindle, other members of the Swindle-Swindel family and perhaps Aaron Clore moved to the Abbeville district of SC. George, Sr., is said to have died on the trip. In SC, the family became known as Raso, while in VA the name was Racer.
Henry Railsback was a brother of John Railsback.
Jacob and Peter Redman attended the Hebron church on a few occasions about the time of the Revolution. The name Redman is no doubt a corruption, but it is not clear what the original name was.
The Rinehart name is found in Culpeper Co. just before the Revolution. It is also found in the Shenandoah Valley, perhaps there first. It appears there were branches of the family on both sides of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Benjamin Rise and his wife Hanna brought Franke to the church for baptism in 1778.
John Rodeheifer is in the Culpeper 1787 tax list in the area of present day Madison Co. His wife seems to be Mary and they brought David to church for baptism in 1776. A deed in 1787 indicates his wife was Sarah (who married Ephraim Yager in 1791 after John died in 1790).
Maria Rossel was a communicant in 1778 at the Hebron Church. Michael Russel was a witness to the 1750 will of George Clore. Though he was named as executor in George Clore's will, Michael renounced the job.
Again, we are seeing many names that have a very limited presence in the community. Still, they are no doubt important in some lines of ancestry. We would like to learn as much as possible about them.
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.