At the start of each half century, it is customary to devote the note to an overview of the purposes, hopes, aims of the notes. I launched these as an effort to build interest in the Germanna Colonies Mailing List service at Rootsweb. The formula that I used was to write specific things about the Germanna people, and general things that would be of interest to all Germanna Colonists and others. The mix has varied.
There is no dictionary definition of the Germanna Colonists. Historically, a handful of people was settled at the place called Germanna (it is now located in Orange County, Virginia, where Virginia State Route 3 crosses the Rapidan River and where Germanna Community College is located). These people were certainly Germanna Colonists. The next group did not live within the confines of the town, village, or place called Germanna, but they were nearby. They probably worshiped at Germanna briefly, and most of them were in the courthouse at Germanna. Still, slightly later, people had a little less claim than the first two groups. But what these later people had was often a blood relationship to the earlier groups and, if not that, they came from the same locations in Germany as the first groups. They had a lot in common with the earlier people. So it would be an arbitrary act to exclude these. The argument continues through the decades.
The current definition of a Germanna Colonist is that it is a person of German descent, who lived on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This would exclude the Shenandoah Valley people; however, it is recognized that there was a great deal of interaction between the people on the two sides of the Mountains. For example, Rev. Klug of the Robinson River community, on the east side, rode the circuit through the Valley. Many Germanna people went over the Blue Ridge to live. The geographical field of interest for the Germanna Colonists, even narrowly defined, is very broad. Answers to questions are to be found in many of the other colonies besides Virginia. Therefore, there is no litmus test to be applied to questions or comments.
To give an example, I have written about Hans Herr who lived in Pennsylvania after he came to America in 1710. Is he related is some way to the Germanna Colonists? Nein; however, he came from a farm in the midst of where many of the Second Colony lived in Germany. Hans left in 1710, and in so doing, demonstrated to many, who did not leave at that time, that it was possible. Indirectly, he had an impact on the future of the Germanna Colonists. There were many others who did the same thing. More than 200 people left from around Siegen in 1710 for New York. They had a tremendous impact on those who stayed behind, who were left to ponder whether they couldn't do the same thing. So it is not profitable to be too restrictive in our definitions and it pays to take a friendly attitude toward all.
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.