The Kemper family name in Germany underwent a drastic change. The male line descends from a Hans Smyt who was born before the time of Martin Luther. The use of surnames was still a novelty and spelling was not important. The name appeared as Schmyt, Schmit, and Schmith. Johann Kemper, the superintendent of church property, was the son of Friedrich Schmidt of Muesen. The Kempers and Campers of Virginia are descended from this man.
Within the Martin ancestry there is an illustration of the development of surnames. The earliest ancestor was Mertin of Fernsdorf, i.e., Mertin had no surname but was identified by his place of residence. Fernsdorf itself was spelled, on occasion, as Pherendorf. The next in the line was Martins Heintz of Ferndorf, which is to be understood as Henry, son of Martin of Ferndorf. That is, Henry was identified as the son of Martin and Martin was identified as being of Ferndorf. As surnames were coming into use, brothers might not even have the same surname. The son of Martins Heintz was Henrich Martin and a given name has now become a surname. At the time of the 1714 emigration, the surname was being spelled as Merten and with a couple of vowel changes the name became Martin.
Johann Frederick Müller left Freudenberg in 1738 and traveled to Virginia on the ill-fated ship Oliver. In Virginia, where he spent the balance of his life, he became John Frederick Miller.
The Nay name of Virginia underwent a change from its spelling as Nöh. The German spelling is still to be found today, principally in the vicinity of Siegen. The change in Nöh is similar to the change in Öhler which became Aylor.
The Richter surname is common in Germany. The early Virginia Richters changed to the spelling to Rector. Hans Jacob Richter, the 1714 Virginia immigrant, sold his house at Trupbach as Hans Jacob Fischbach and in doing so used his wife's maiden name.
Early Spielmanns were perhaps players of musical instruments, e.g., a fifer in the army. The name was simplified slightly in Virginia to Spilman. In Virginia, the name has become confused with similar English names.
The Otterbach family made two simple changes to the spelling and became Utterbacks. Almost invariably in the eighteenth century, the German " -bach " became " -back ".
Georg Caspar Weidmann of Freudenberg, another lucky survivor of the 1738 voyage and shipwreck of the ship Oliver, became George Wayman in Virginia. The name George could be spelled in several ways in Germany, including Georg or Jorg.
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.