In the last note, the fascination of looking at the relationships of the new immigrants to the prior immigrants pushed the question of the villages of their origin aside. To clean up that question, Hans Jacob Fischbach came from Trupbach, Hans Hendrick Hofman was from Bockseifen, Johanis Jung was from Trupbach, and Johanis Nohe was from Trupbach. The only new village is Bockseifen which is so small (zero churches) that it is usually given as an appendage of Freudenberg.
Freudenberg enters prominently in the future discussion, so it merits being located now. It is about ten miles west, and three miles north, of Siegen. It is the largest of the villages that have been named around Siegen. It makes a picturesque site with its black and white half-timbered houses.
Still, in the year 1734, and on the ship Hope, there were two Johann Henrich Otterbachs. The difference between them is that one was apparently 36, and one was 21. The younger was a nephew of Frau Nohe, and a great-nephew of Harman Otterbach, of the 1714 Colony. The young Henry Utterback was born at Trupbach. The elder Henry Utterback was the uncle of the younger man, was the brother of Frau Nohe, and was the nephew of the 1714 Harman Utterback. This Henry was also born at Trupbach.
The final member of the group was Joanis Richter, age 26. B. C. Holtzclaw had thought that this John Rector was a first cousin, once-removed, of the 1714 Rector; however, James McJohn did an analysis of the church records in Germany. He wrote, "From an examination of the church records in Nassau-Siegen, it is not possible to infer any relationship between John Rector and John Jacob Rector, even though the names and point of origin suggest there may be one." The analysis was published in Beyond Germanna , in volume 4, the number 2 issue. This John Rector is usually identified as the one who died in 1742. John Rector and his wife are to be identified with the town of Siegen.
This raises the question of the popularity of our Germanna names in Germany. The phone book (German that is) shows 126,165 Fischers, 109,163 Webers, 87,955 Hoffmans, 75,130 Richters, and 54,880 Zimmermans. I do not have a count of some other popular names such as Schmidt and its variations. Rupp, in his " Thirty Thousand Names ", shows eight Richters who came in through Philadelphia. It should not be assumed that all of the Rectors are associated or closely 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.