There are some names that have been put forth as Germanna settlers which should not be included. A few of these are reviewed in this note.
It has been said that John Broyles, Jr., came slightly later than his father, mother, brothers, and a sister. This "fact" has been repeated by several writers, but it appears to be a clear case that the authors were simply copying each other. James E. Brown took the time to search through the Spotsylvania County records which were cited as the source. What he found was that there was no John Broyles, Jr., in the time frame that had been cited. Instead, he found a record of John Bell. From the German records, we know that no John Broyles, Jr., was to be expected.
Another name to be removed from the lists of Germanna settlers is Henry Coller. Searches for a Henry Coller, who lived among the Germans, or even near to the Germans, proved fruitless. The only mention of the name was in the will of Michael Kaifer. Finally, a consortium of researchers, led by Nancy Dodge, found the answer. Coller was a mistaken writing for Aylor, and Henry Coller should be identified as Henry Aylor. Margaret, the wife of Henry Aylor, was the daughter of Michael Kaifer and Anna Maria Blankenbaker.
The name Flender could hardly be counted as a Germanna settler. While Ernst Flender in this century was very much a friend and benefactor of the Germanna people, he himself never lived in the Germanna area and certainly not in the time frame of the settlers.
The name Kyner was a misreading of Riner. In the German script, the capital letters " K " and " R " look very much alike, at least the capital K suggests the capital R. In German, the letters " y " and " i " often substitute for each other. The German spelling of the name is actually Reiner .
Another name which should be struck from the lists of Germanna settlers is John Langenbuehl . Again, the name Langenbuehl reflects the inability to distinguish the German script " L " from the " B ". To the untrained eye, the B looks very much like an L . The correct reading of the name is Blankenbaker (to use a modern spelling), or Blankenbühler in German.
With the exception of the name of Flender , the examples above arise from reading, writing, or spelling problems. There are several other names on the list of Germanna settlers, published by the Germanna Foundation, about which one wonders. Several of these might be nonexistent if the true name were detected.
In the last note, some of the evidence for Francis Michel was discussed. His arrival time could be given as 1702, if you use his first arrival time, or 1710, if you use his last arrival time.
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.