The last notes have discussed the confusion concerning the Lewis Fisher family. There is more than has been given. But to recap some, the Garrs gave the wrong set of children. The claim that Lewis was the son of Sebastian Fisher of Tulpehocken, Pennsylvania is not born out by the facts. And the estate worth millions of dollars did not pan out. Or as the gold miners might say, "It showed only sand."
There is more potential confusion. First, in the 1739 tithe list for Orange County, there are two Lewis Fishers, one living north of the Robinson River and one living south of the Robinson River. Two different men wrote down his name as a tithe. What is one to make of this situation?
One theory is that there was only one Lewis Fisher who had homes on both sides of the river. Each roll taker thought he was responsible for the man and entered his name on the tithe list. Presumably under this scenario, Lewis Fisher was absent when one of the tithe takers came around and this census reporter used information from neighbors. Had Lewis been present, he surely would have made the point that he had been counted already. After all, it did cost money to be counted or enrolled on the tithe list.
I know of no other evidence that there were two Lewis Fishers. Except ---
Mrs. Margaret James Squires, in researching her Christoph Zimmermann in Germany, reports that at the baptism of one of the Zimmermann children the sponsors were Ludwig and Anna Barbara Fischer. But since Christopher Zimmerman came with the Second Colony, this would make the sponsoring couple too old to be the Lewis and Anna Barbara Fisher that we have been talking about. Now suppose that the parents in Germany, at Sulzfeld, to be more exact, had a son Ludwig who came with them to Virginia. The son married Anna Barbara Blankenbaker and they were the parents of the family that we have been talking about.
Under this condition, there might be two Lewis Fisher families, each with a wife named Anna Barbara. Except for the poll list where the duplicated names stand out, it would be easy to merge the two families into one and to think there was only one family. Especially if the elder family was not too active in generating records.
I have put forth this suggestion before, but I must say it has not generated a lot of enthusiasm. One reason is that people hate to see a family changed or upset. The evidence in the Lewis family shows that people, even when presented with good, solid evidence are reluctant to accept new information if it upsets their previous conceptions; however, if I were a Fisher family descendant trying to find its German origins, I would start around Sulzfeld. Presumably Cerni and Zimmerman of the " Before Germanna " monographs did look in the area. They did not mention anything; however, not all church records have been filmed. Also, a name as common as Fischer might have discouraged 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.