Any one group of German immigrants often came from the same village or region. Therefore, if you know where some of the members came from, a search in the same area will often find other members of the group. The First Germanna Colony illustrates this very well as they all came from a tight circle around Siegen. This was an unusual case though, as they were recruited and the effort of the recruiter (Johann Justus Albrecht) was concentrated on Siegen.
The origins of the Blankenbaker and Willheit (Wilhite/Wilhoit) families had been known for some time when Lineages, Inc., a professional genealogical research firm, started a search for other members of the Second Colony. They observed that the villages of the two families above were not very far apart. Based on the thought that others might have come from nearby villages, they searched through the church records (as available on microfilm) in nearby villages. They found some information on about forty families, not all members of the Second Colony, but known to be immigrants to Virginia at some time.
In the process, they have basically proven that Rev. Stöver was in error when he said the Second Colony came from the Alsace, Palatinate, and adjacent places. No one has been found in the Virginia Germans who came from the Alsace. Only a very small number came from the Palatinate. Because of the shifting and confused political structures, it is not easy to say exactly where the people came from. Geographically it is somewhat easier.
The river that flows by the town of Heidelberg is the Neckar, which runs to the west at this point toward the Rhine River. A little bit to the east of Heidelberg, the Neckar makes a turn as it comes from the south. The Neckar region is defined as the area between the Rhine and the Neckar Rivers. Though it is not strictly true, this same region is sometimes called the Kraichgau. At the time, the political jurisdiction was very confusing, being partly the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg, and a variety of smaller political jurisdictions, including some no larger than a village. Today, the entire region is in the state of Baden-Württemberg and the smaller principalities have disappeared.
Not all of the Second Colony members were found in this small area, which is only a few percent of the total German area. The Yagers came from the west side of the Rhine, and the Harnsbergers came from Switzerland. But, allowing for a few exceptions, it would seem safe to say the Second Colony members came from the Kraichgau or, slightly more broadly, the Neckar regions.
Therefore, a search for the Barlow family ought to concentrate on this region. There is no reason to believe that they are any different from the typical Second Colony member; however, there are some problems in the search. First, the spelling of the original name in Germany is not known. Second, not all church records are available from this region. Third, some families have very few appearances in the church records. Judging by the number of records in Virginia, the Barlows may be in this category.
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.