As we move later into the eighteenth century, Germans continued to come to the Germanna area, but their motivations were more mixed than they were for the early inhabitants. The very first inhabitants, the First and Second Colonies, arrived in Virginia for very unusual reasons. The First Colony came to mine silver. The Second Colony came because they were kidnaped by the captain of the ship which brought them. The Germans who came in the next thirty years or so came because of the people who were already here. This is when we get the friend and relative influence. In this time period, we should seek the point of origin of the later people by studying the people with whom the later arrivals associated. As time went by, this became less of a reason. Motives became much more mixed, and in many cases they escape us entirely.
During the Revolution, we find there were additions from Germany whose motives were completely different. In fact, they generally wished not to be here, especially at first. As they became acquainted with the German communities and the life that they could have here, they changed their mind. Almost universally, they had no friends or relatives here. Instead they saw an opportunity for a new and better life. These were the British Auxiliaries who are called the Hessians, though only a minority was from Hesse. (The parallel to this is the habit of calling Germans in general, "Palatines".)
The existence of such people in the Germanna community was not even suspected until very recently. So far, three men have been discovered, and more may be found. The path-breaking find was made by Louise and Jim Hodge, who started only with the name Charles Frady in Culpeper County. The name did not even look German. By the persistent efforts of Jim and Louise, they found that Charles Frady was the sound-alike Carl Simon Wrede, who was a British Auxiliary. He was being held as a prisoner of war by the Americans. Probably, the Americans were not greatly concerned that he escaped from their custody and joined the German community in the Robinson River Valley.
Several more late arriving families can be named; these are people whose motivations for coming are not apparent. Their history prior to Culpeper is not even known. All we can do is pick up their story in Culpeper County and carry it forward. Some families that come to mind as examples are the House, Chelf, Bungers, Arbaughs, Dozers, et al families. That we do not know the communities and their inhabitants better is a disappointment to me.
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.