All of the troubles that southwestern Germany had during the 1600's had an impact on the people who eventually made up the Second Germanna Colony. More strongly, it impacted everyone over a wide range of geography. With the vacant land, farms, and homes, that had been created by the wars, and the ancillary troubles, the rulers in the Kraichgau were hard pressed to raise the tax money that their dreams demanded. They sent out the word that one could immigrate to their holdings with many benefits. Many people from across a wide section of southern Germany and Switzerland responded, and moved in. Several immediate ancestors of Second Germanna Colony people were participants in this movement.
The Käfers (Kaifer) came from Ansbach, some distance to the east and north in Germany, and settled in Zaberfeld. Ansbach is to be found just to the west of Nurnberg. Another family who came from the Ansbach region is the Utz family, in particular from the villages of Seiderzell and Haundorf. Perhaps the Motz family came from Hecklingen in the Ansbach region also. And, finally, the Crees family came from Öttingen in the same region. Fred Zimmerman and Johni Cerny who did much of the research leading to these findings were stymied by the lack of microfilms for churches in that area.
Whenever a group of people emigrates from a region, we always look for the "ties that bind". In this case, none are known, but that may be due to the lack of records. In the western regions, they settled in somewhat different areas, which leads us to believe that they may not have much in common, except an approximate point of origin.
A more extreme example of a family on the move, in the seventeenth century, is the Blanckenbühler family who made two moves. The first was from the small village of Gresten, in Austria. During the Thirty Years' War , it had been impossible to move. During this time, Austria was forcibly converted to a Catholic country (it had been about equally divided between Catholic and Lutheran up to this point). At the conclusion of the war, the Blanckenbühlers may have been encouraged to move to an area where there were Lutheran churches. So, the first move was made to the villages around Dottenheim and Oberrossbach, in Mittelfranken (a region in Bavaria). The largest concentration of Blanckenbühlers (of the fifteen or so still in Germany) still live in this area. But not long after the move here, some of them went on to the area which is now in Baden. This family seemed to have many members who were among the first to move westward, but that is another story.
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.