In the Robinson River Valley of present day Madison County, Virginia, there were two families of the early eighteenth century who are often confused. The German name of both families was Zimmermann. The first to arrive in Virginia, in 1717, was Christoph Zimmermann, and he and his descendants kept the name Zimmerman . A few years later, Wilhelm and Johann Zimmermann came. Whether to distinguish themselves from the earlier family, or whether they wished to adopt English customs and name, is not clear, but they almost immediately took up the name of Carpenter in lieu of Zimmermann. In the civil records, I believe they are were always referred to as Carpenter. The confusion arises because down at the German church the records were often kept with the German version of the name, not the anglicized version of the name. Thus, the Carpenter family at the church is sometimes called Zimmermann but not always. Sometimes they are Carpenters and this has been the source of confusion. One has to study the records for a while to learn the first names that distinguish them. Even experts such as B. C. Holtzclaw have confused the two and called some of the Carpenters "Zimmermans".
I will discuss the Zimmerman family for a few notes. They did drop the second "n" but otherwise they kept the German name. Strangely enough, one part of this family, with the German version of the name, was among the first to adopt the English language, customs, and religion. This came about because the immigrant patriarch, Christopher, did not live in the Robinson River Valley, but lived southeast of Mt. Pony, with only a few other Germans in the neighborhood. When surrounded by English neighbors, German families usually adopted English customs very quickly. As an example, within ten years of settling in the Mt. Pony area, one of the Germans was a Lt. in the militia.
One part of this family moved from the Mt. Pony area to the Robinson River Valley. Members of this branch appear in the Evangelical German Church records, i.e., the "Dutch" church now known as Hebron Lutheran Church. This branch is headed by John Zimmerman, the son of Christopher. Why should this physical separation have come about? It perhaps originated with the fact that John, the eldest child, was a son of the first wife, while his siblings had a different mother. There is no evidence, other than the physical separation, that there may have been some strong feelings. Maybe John did not wish to adopt the English ways and wanted an environment that was more German.
The source of the Zimmerman family in Germany is known. When one looks in the records there, it is found that they had immigrated to Germany from Switzerland. (Several of our Germanna families have a connection to Switzerland as they moved from there after the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648.)
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.