The last note discussed the Garr Genealogy, a book now more than one hundred years old, and the Lewis Fisher family in which the authors made a few mistakes. This note continues the Lewis Fisher family discussion but the comments to be made here nothing to do with the Garr Genealogy.
Some people say that Lewis Fisher was the son of Sebastian Fisher of Tulpehocken, Pennsylvania. Sebastian Fisher did have a son, Lorenz, but the name Lorenz is not to be equated with Ludwig. Lorenz goes into its almost sound alike name, Lawrence. Ludwig goes into Lewis. Lorenz and Ludwig are not to be acquainted. Say that they were equal would be similar to saying that John and Joseph were the same name.
Thanks to Hank Z Jones, the German history of Sebastian Fisher was discovered. There is nothing in the story there to suggest that Sebastian should or could be connected with the Germanna Fisher family.
Lewis Fisher managed to attract the attention of his descendants when he wrote his will. Of course, at the time of writing, he had only a few descendants but later ones had the will quoted to them over and over. He used the statement, "Also, my will is if my Germany estate should be recovered it should be equally divided among all my children." Those twenty words certainly caught the attention of his descendants down to the present. About a hundred years ago, a committee of them attempted to track this estate down. By then they had imagined it amounted to millions of dollars. They actually sent a person to Germany and hired a representative there. Not surprisingly, not a single shred of evidence was turned up.
What did Lewis mean by "my German estate"? I don't have any doubt but that it was an inheritance of which he was entitled to a part. It could be as simple as one-third of a cow. Typically emigrants left parents behind who may have had some property holdings. The emigrant often lost his rights just because he was not there. I have read a copy of a letter in which a sister in Germany writes to a brother in America that they divided the parent's estate without considering him because they were not even sure he was still living at the time of the division. And if he were, there was a question as to transfer the assets. And she went on to say that the estate didn't amount to much anyway. So this is most likely the story with Lewis Fisher. He probably had some rights to property but his claim was proving difficult to press. Even if the amount were very small, he could use the word "estate". The word itself does not imply any amount.
So I am not holding my breath waiting for my share of the inheritance to come in. If some of you think there is something to the story, you can buy my rights. Make your best offer to the address below.
[P.S. Speaking of errors (which I have been doing recently), in note 191, Uriah Rector should be referred to as the eldest son since he was the heir of John Rector. MY mistake.]
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.