If there seems to be problems in enumerating the forty-two persons who constituted the First Colony when it arrived in Virginia, then try naming the people who made up the Second Colony. There is no exact number to use as a guide. Gov. Spotswood said there were seventy-odd people which, I guess, is a range from seventy-one to seventy-nine. The Germans themselves usually put the number at eighty but they were probably guilty of rounding off. Still, the choice of eighty, as opposed to seventy, suggests they were thinking of at least seventy-five but not more than eighty-four.
There are several problems in counting. First, there are three families in the Gemmingen death register who have either no history at all in Virginia, or they disappear after appearing once on the importation list of Spotswood (which has a total of forty-eight names). The two families which are on the importation list but who never appear again are especially troublesome. These are the Mihlckher and Wegman families for a total of nine people.
In addition to the Gemmingen death register list and the importation list, there are the people who were sued by Spotswood, the people who obtained their land patents in 1726, and the people whose proofs of importation say 1717. In this last category Barlow, Broyles, Harnsberger, Kerker, Motz, Paulitz, Snyder, Yager, and Zimmerman say they arrived in 1717 in their proofs of importation, but they do not appear on the Gemmingen or the importation list. These families have twenty-nine people.
Starting with the importation list of forty-eight people, if we add the Matthew Smith family of two people from the Gemmingen list, we come to fifty. This omits the Beck family on the Gemmingen list, for which there is no record that they were ever in Virginia. Adding the twenty-nine people from the proofs of importation brings the number to seventy-nine. This leaves out the Amberger, Ballenger, Crigler, Holt, Moyer, Sheible, and Thomas families who were either sued by Spotswood or obtained their land in 1726. These make up sixteen people. Added to the seventy-nine, the count is up to ninety-five.
Part of this last group of people seem to have excellent credentials for arrival in 1717. The Thomas family would have completed the Anna Barbara Schön group of families (see the last note). One other family from this same village, the Sheibles, is very likely to have come at the same time. The Sheible family was sued at the same time as others.
Thus, there is an embarrassment of names. We have too many people who have reasonably good credentials. (I may have made some errors in arithmetic here, but the drift of the argument should be clear.)
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.