On 22 October 1776, the German Congregation of the County of Culpeper petitioned the President and Delegates of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Virginia. One hundred and twenty-one male members of the congregation "signed" the petition. There are a few problems for us in the names.
Two Benjamin Gaars signed. I am unable to place one of these. Perhaps Lorenz, the son of the immigrant Andrew, had a son Benjamin. The "Garr Genealogy" does not give Andrew a son of this name though.
Previously I had mentioned there were three Michael Utzes. This forced us to assign one of them to George Utz (son of the immigrant George Utz), whose family history was founded on incomplete documentation.
Two Jacob Broyles signed. I believe it is impossible to assign the second Jacob in the standard histories.
A name that is a mystery is Jurt Tanner. Is Jurt to be recognized as another proper name or as a nickname? My Tanner history does not recognize a Jurt, but maybe I just don't recognize the name that I should be using.
A few of the names force us to pause. Who was John Winegard? Who was Adam Pander? Should this last name be read as Bender? The Lipp family is present in the person of Frederick. I could wish that we knew more about this family. The same is my wish for George Lehman and his family.
One unusual name is Rudolph Crecelius, but his history, as relates to Germanna, is being unfolded. Other people that it would be desirable to learn more about include Jacob Henrexson and Daniel Dosser.
The great advantage of a list, such as this, which is probably relatively complete, is that it gives us a check list to see if we do understand the community. It would be desirable if we did not need to ask, "Who is this?"
If you can help, it would be appreciated. (Some of the problems I have mentioned might be caused by a misreading of the names.)
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.