At these half-century marks, it is appropriate to review what these notes are all about. First, I would hope they are interesting and informative to our Germanna descendants. But who are our Germanna descendants? There is the rub; we are still looking and counting. Every time we turn over another stein (sorry about that, I meant a stone), we find more. It is so easy for a German to get lost behind an English spelling of his name. A man by the name of Stein becomes a Stone, obviously an English name, right?
One thing becomes clearer. Many of our records are to be found in other colonies and in other states. Some Germanna people had a history before they came to the area which we identify specifically with Germanna. And certainly a lot of them left the area.
So not knowing just exactly who all the Germanna people are and where they may have lived, I hope that these notes are of interest to a broader audience. We may be able to help them and they may be able to help us. Along the way let's have some fun.
While we are finding the bones and how they connect, let's try to put some flesh on our ancestors and make them real. Did you have an ancestor who sailed on the last voyage of the ship Oliver? If you did, you are very lucky to be here. After you know the story of the Oliver, you will have a better appreciation of the hardships and dangers that our ancestors faced. Were your ancestors indentured? If they were, all the more reason to feel proud of them. They sacrificed so that their descendants would have a better life.
The first intention of these notes is to make this list an interesting place to be. But is also a place to get questions answered. That is its primary purpose. But if these notes encourage more people to follow the list, then the chances are better that a question will be answered. Perhaps we should see more questions here. I think too many people are bashful about being an author and generating questions. This is how we all learn, by either asking questions or trying to answer questions.
(NOTE FROM THE CURATOR OF THESE WEB PAGES: Above, John is referring to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List at RootsWeb. This List is the equivalent of a "Community Bulletin Board", where subscribers may send queries for others to read, answer, and perhaps give some help. Chances are that at least one of the other subscribers will have some pertinent data that the requester needs. Then, the subscriber with the information posts it back to the Mailing List for the requester and all other subscribers to read. This way we make our information available to all Germanna descendant subscribers to the List. Below, you will find specific information on how to subscribe to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List.)
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.