John Hoffman, 1714 immigrant, moved from Germantown after living there about ten years. He moved to the Robinson River community, where the Second Germanna Colony had moved after their term of service for Spotswood was ended. Today, we can see two possible motives that John Hoffman had for this move, namely, land and love. I am inclined to "love" as opposed to "land," but that is prejudice, not a decision based on facts. This note examines who his second wife was.
First, a score card is needed to keep the events to be related straight:
Anna 1 Johann 2 Anna 3 Johann Maria = Michael = Barbara = Georg ----- Volck Majer Utz
where the equals sign (=) denotes a marriage and the numeral above is the sequence number.
The information to be presented was found by Margaret James Squires, who was looking through the microfilm records of the Lutheran Church of Hüffenhardt, Mosbach, Baden, for another family having no connection with Germanna. She recognized the Germanna names and compiled the information on them. Wagenbach, the home of the people, is an estate farm which is a mini-village. It is a couple of miles from the church.
Hans (Johann) Michael Volck of Wagenbach married, probably about 1685, Anna Maria ____. (The two names, Volck and Folg, sound almost alike when pronounced in German.) Seven children were born to Johann Michael and Anna Maria, the last in 1704. Anna Maria's death is not recorded but there are gaps in the church records, probably due to war. There is a record of a marriage between Johann Michael Volck and Anna Barbara Majer(s) on 29 Jan 1709. Three children are in the church records:
1. Maria Sabina Charlotta Barbara, b. 19 Mar 1710,
2. Louisa Elisabetha, b. 23 Mar 1711,
3. Maria Rosina, b. 22 Aug 1712.
Not long after the last birth, Johann Michael Volck died on 7 Apr 1714, at the age of 51 years.
The widow, Anna Barbara (Majer) Volck, married Johann Georg Utz, on 10 Jul 1714. Two children were born in Germany:
4. Ferdinand, b. 3 Apr 1715,
5. Johannes, b. 25 Jul 1716.
The family, with enough names to make the identity certain, was on Spotswood's list of importees. Maria Sabina Charlotta Barbara, the daughter of Mrs. George Utz, married John Hoffman in Virginia when she was about 19 years of age.
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.