There has been considerable misinformation published about the Germanna Colonies. Trying to improve the record is a major job, especially when people and organizations who should know better put forth erroneous and misleading statements. I am continuing with corrections that should be made to one recently published article.
In one part, the statement is made that the First Colony moved away from Germanna during 1716-17. Later the statement is made, in the same article, that the First Colony moved away from Germanna in 1721 which is about a five-year difference. Actually neither date is correct but the average is very close. Very probably they moved in January of 1719 by the new style calendar. Excellent arguments can be made for this specific month.
The author implied that Jacob Holtzclaw and John Hoffman took up land via the patent process in the Robinson River Valley. Jacob Holtzclaw did not, as his September 27, 1728 patent was in the Little Fork region. And the year was 1729, not 1728. John Hoffman did take up land in the Robinson River Valley. He also found his second wife there and it is not clear whether the wife or the land came first.
Among the people mentioned as taking up land in the 1726 patents, the name Tomer is said to be Tanner. This is an error, as the name was really Thomas, not Tanner. Also no land in the Robinson River Valley has been found for George Woodruff. Likewise, some of the other names mentioned as patentees in the Robinson River area are dubious.
The article in question is generally concerned with the Second Colony but it fails to note that not all members of the Second Colony went to the Robinson River Valley. There was also a settlement on the southeast side of Mount Pony.
An outward migration from Virginia to Boone Co., Kentucky is mentioned with the dates implying that the years were the 1730's and the 1740's. This migration did not take place until about 1810. A migration to Kentucky before 1750 would have beat the first explorers by 30 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.