In studying the Rector family, we saw that the history had to be revised when more evidence was discovered. There is a similar situation with the Zimmerman family, about whom B. C. Holtzclaw wrote in " Germanna Record Six " (about four pages). [He left later notes and admitted that identifying John Zimmerman and wife Susanna with the Zimmerman family was a mistake; he was a member of the Carpenter family.] In these later notes, he wrote that Christopher Zimmermann was born in Germany about 1685-90 and came to America in 1717 with his wife Elizabeth and two sons, John and Andrew. Without information from Germany, these suppositions or guesses were very good. But, when the German information became available, some modifications were necessary. Like John Rector, Christopher Zimmerman was married twice, and Elizabeth (actually Anna Elisabetha) was his second wife. John was the son of the first wife and Andrew was the son of the second wife. [Again, this is a lesson for us about the probability that our information is correct.]
The son John, when he was naturalized, said that he was born in a place in Germany which has since been identified as Sulzfeld . German locality spellings, especially as written by an English clerk in the eighteenth century, are sometimes a problem to match with the current names. The problem is compounded by many similar names in a German atlas.
Margaret James Squires was able to identify the village and she examined the church records.
She found that Hans Christoph Zimmermann had been born there on 16 Mar 1692.
His parents were Christian Zimmermann and Eva Dünster (or Dünstler) of " Langenbruck ," the daughter of Michael Dünster.
Christian Zimmerman was born (more exactly, christened) 30 Dec 1669 in Sulzfeld.
Eva Dünster was born about 1662.
They were married 28 Jan 1688 at Sulzfeld.
They were the parents of four children.
Johann Georg was born 23 Apr 1688 and he died two weeks later on 8 May.
Johann Conrad was born 22 Jan 1690 and he lived until 18 Apr 1700, not long past his tenth birthday.
Then came (16 Mar 1692) Johann (Hans) Christoph, the Virginia immigrant.
A girl, Maria Eva, was born and christened on 15 May 1697. No further records appear for her and the christening on the day of birth may indicate that she was not expected to live.
The mother, Eva Dünstler Zimmermann, died six months later on 15 Feb 1698. Christian Zimmermann was a widower at 28 years of age with two young sons.
He married, later in the year on 22 Nov 1698, Maria Barbara Edel.
Christian died 22 May 1735 at 75 years of age. (This does not compute correctly.) [I have no information about Maria Barbara Edel or any family that she and Christian may have had.]
The ancestry of Christian can be carried back for two generations and I will do that before following the life of Christopher, the Virginia immigrant.
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.