One of the popular destinations for Germanna people, who lived in the Robinson River Valley, was Jefferson County, Kentucky. Of course, migrations from Virginia occurred much earlier than these relocations to Kentucky. And, immigrants to Jefferson County came from other locations than from Virginia. Pennsylvania yielded up many of its citizens. But there certainly was an influx of German ancestries to this area just outside Louisville.
There is a record of the Jeffersontown Lutheran Church from 1818 to 1885, which has been published by Virginia Vance Lovett. One of the prominent citizens, both in civil affairs and in the church, was Samuel Blankenbeker, who appears on the tax rolls in Jefferson Co. in 1795. Earlier he had been in other Kentucky Counties. He was a son of Jacob Blankenbeker, the son of the 1717 immigrant, John Nicholas Blankenbeker. All of Jacob's children moved to Kentucky, apparently before he moved. Jacob had two wives and two families, separated widely in time. When Jacob died, his youngest child was less than a month old. Jacob's will stated that the estate was not to be divided up until this youngest child had reached his majority. When the estate was settled, Jacob's oldest child, Elizabeth Garriott was seventy years old.
Other Germanna surnames in the church included Crisler (Christler was the preferred spelling), Garr, Nunnemaker, Wilhoite, Yeager. Other names which duplicate Germanna names are House, Pence, Carpenter, Berry, Slaughter, Smith, Peck, and Miller. But I can't immediately say whether this latter set of names are Germanna people or not. Later the name Diehl occurs which also duplicates a Germanna name.
I would like to think that an index could be compiled of the major locations to which our Germanna people moved. This index would try to collect the names of those moving and the dates of the move. Let me give just a few of the general locations which were popular. Southwestern Pennsylvania, though it was thought to be Virginia at the time, received several families. Greenbrier Co., now in West Virginia, got several Culpeper families, both English and German. Rowan Co. in North Carolina was very popular as an early destination. (The original Rowan County was quite large though.) Southwest Virginia received many. And, of course, many just moved over the Blue Ridge to the Shenandoah Valley. We have had several mentions of Boone Co., Kentucky, which received a whole colony en mass from the Robinson River Valley. A little later in time, Missouri seemed to be the "in" spot for relocations.
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.