This note starts the ninth half-century (and the fifth century) in this series on the Germanna Colonies list. It is customary at these points to review my motivations for writing the series . Primarily, the objective is to promote discussion and understanding of our Germanna ancestors.
The Germanna Colonies List should not have just one single source or single author, but should encourage "many flowers to bloom."
In choosing the material that I write about, I consider several factors. I am always on the lookout for material that is common to all of our German ancestors. I try to make at least some of my comments have a broad appeal for a wide audience. Thus, I might talk about Atlantic crossings on the ships of the eighteenth century, which applies to all German immigrants of that time, not just the Germanna colonists. Our Germanna colonists certainly saw some of the worse of the ocean crossings though. (Or putting it another way, some of us are really lucky to be here today.)
Some of the discussions are limited to specific Germanna families. There currently is an ongoing discussion of the " Barlow " family, whose mysteries are deep. What I write about them is intended to be an encouragement for others to add their comments. Maybe we won't find the answers, but maybe we will eliminate some items which are false or improbable. So, if I write something that prompts someone to respond, " John, you are wrong; the evidence shows that ... ," then my day has been made.
One limitation that I have is that I am not an expert on any family. I may know more about some of the families than most people do, but for any given family there are people who know more than I do. Many times, because of my limited knowledge, I hesitate to write about a family. So on occasions, I may write in a tentative way, hoping that someone will correct my mistakes.
For a definition of what constitutes a Germanna colonist or family, I use the definition that they were Germans who lived for at least a while in the modern Virginia counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange, or Rappahannock. This means they were east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Germanna itself was alongside the Rapidan River, the southern arm of the Rappahannock River. The Robinson River Valley, home to most of the Second Colony, centers on a branch of the Rapidan. The Little Fork district is between two arms of the north branch of the Rappahannock. Germantown, on Licking Run, is in the watershed of the Potomac.
There were Germans who were born, married, and died in this region. Some Germans only lived here for a couple of years. These people, regardless of how long they lived here, were not atypical. Some of my remarks try to take advantage of this generality to broaden the appeal while keeping a focus on our Germanna ancestors.
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.