We have encountered a few names connected with the Zimmermann family in Germany that appear in the Germanna community. The name Wegman is not known well in the Germanna community, and, when it does occur, it is often confused with Wayman. In Germany, the first born son (Johannes) of Michael Zimmermann, the immigrant from Switzerland to Germany, married Regina Wegmon or Wegmann.
Michael himself, as his second wife, married Elisabetha Albrecht. Albrecht is a common name. The only reason for perhaps taking note of the name is that Christoph von Graffenried hired Johann Justus Albrecht to recruit miners. Graffenried was a citizen of Bern, the general region of Switzerland from which Michael Zimmermann came.
The grandfather of the Virginia immigrant, Christopher, was Christian (Sr.), who married Maria Schuchter. Anna Barbara Schön, whose first husband was a Blankenbühler, married, as her second husband, Johann Jacob Schluchter. Now the difference between Schucter and Schlucter is not much, just one letter, which might almost be considered redundant. It is interesting to note the physical distance between Sulzfeld (church of the Zimmermanns) and Neuenbürg (home of the Blankenbühlers). One could walk between the villages before breakfast (the actual distance is about eight miles). One thing that makes this thought worth considering is that the eldest son of the immigrant Christopher Zimmerman married Ursula Blankenbaker in Virginia. Was there a connection in Germany? Did the Zimmerman and Blankenbaker families know each in Germany?
There is another name in the Zimmermann history that appears in the Germanna community much later. That is the name Lehman (as it usually appeared in the Germanna community), and the name Lehemann in Sulzfeld. Michael Zimmermann's second wife was the widow of Hanns Lehemann. The Germanna Lehman is considered by his family to be a descendant of Swiss Anabaptists.
In Sulzfeld, there is at least one family name other than Zimmerman which appears in Virginia. That is the Kappler family, known by a variety of spellings in America, but in the earliest days was most often Kabler (later Keebler?). The Kabler and Zimmerman families were neighbors in the Mt. Pony area and both were called coopers at least once. Both came from Sulzfeld.
The eldest child in the second family of Christopher Zimmerman (immigrant to Virginia) was Johann Martin. At his baptism, one of the witnesses was Ludwig Fischer (or Lewis Fisher as we would spell it). Now the Ludwig Fischer in Germany would be too old to be the Lewis Fisher who married Anna Barbara Blankenbaker in Virginia, but were they related?
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.