I have mentioned that the First Colony people, when they were in London, could not go home (to the Siegen area) as recommended by Graffenried. The reasons behind this statement are many, some legal, some psychological. Technically, they had obtained permission to leave and in the process became "citizens without a country." When many of our German ancestors left their homes, they paid a fee and, in essence, they purchased their freedom. Psychologically, the attitude of the Germans who remained in Germany was that the emigrants were dead and gone. This was typified by the entries in the death register telling of their departure. Among the emigrants themselves, they had made a commitment and it was hard to admit they were wrong. But, it was possible to return on a permanent basis and many Germans did return. Some returned very soon and others returned after many years.
I have mentioned that the Second Colony people purchased their land from the Crown in Spotsylvania County. Perhaps even in the same note I may have mentioned that some of them had their land for free. My thinking, as I made these almost contradictory statements, was that I was distinguishing the Second Colony people, who had their land from the Crown, from the First Colony people, who had their land from the Proprietors of the Northern Neck. So, when I said the Second Colony bought their land from the Crown, I was including bargain sales at 100% off the usual price.
In the last note I was counting the candidate members of the Second Colony. Gary Zimmerman and Johni Cerny (in the "Before Germanna" booklets) gave a list of people who they believed were members of the Second Colony, and a list of those they believed were probable. In the first of these categories, they have about 113 people. In the second, they have 26 for a total of 139. It seems to me that this number is not at all in keeping with the spirit of Spotswood's statement at seventy odd, or the Germans' later statement of eighty.
Johni Cerny is a descendant of Johann Michael Willheit, and she seems to be stretching to include the family in the Second Colony. Her rationalization is reasonable, namely that the Willheit family disappears from the church records in Schwaigern at a time which is consistent with the Second Colony, but this is hardly evidence that they were members of the Second Colony. Considering that other families have a better claim, I believe that the Willheit family is best counted as one of the early families who came just after the Second Colony.
This concludes, at least for the present, clarifications of earlier notes. I do appreciate your questions and, even if you find that I have made a boo-boo, I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. And, of course, we have the gray areas where even Rinso doesn't always make the record white. So discussions, pro and con, are welcome also.
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.