(JOHN HAS RETURNED FROM HIS TRIP TO GERMANY!) gwd, Web Site Manager
During our trip, we visited many cemeteries in Germany. Even if the town or church is of no particular interest, the cemetery is always an attractive place, albeit seldom a place where any practical research can be done.
Graves are not permanent in Germany. One pays rent by the (thirty year?) period and, if the rental is not renewed at the end of the period, the grave site is reused. Therefore, the graves are usually modern with nearly all of the graves being from the last fifty years. What is distinctive is the effort devoted to caring for the grave sites, which nearly always have current flowers of the season planted in the ground assigned to the site. When combined with the modernistic design of the tombstones, the overall impression is exceedingly pleasant.
Just this last Sunday, we were in the Lonnerstadt cemetery. There was some reason, to be discussed in later notes, to be interested in this city aside from the fact that five of the fifteen Blankenbühlers in Germany today live in Lonnerstadt. (Blankenbühler is an established spelling, in Germany, of the Blankenbaker and similar names in America.) True to the location, with its five living Blankenbühlers in the town, there were three stones with the name Blankenbühler on them. One of them even made a reference to Johann Nicholas Blankenbühler.
The shock and, literally, it was a shock was in the other surnames which were found there. The names Thoma, Motz, Marr, Heironymous, Lang, and Wieland, besides Blankenbühler, were to be found in the cemetery. Every one of these names occurs in our Germanna history. I did not count the Fischers and Smitts who were also present. A John Thoma married Anna Maria Blankenbühler in Germany. The Motz family is largely unknown in Virginia but it is mentioned in the first years. Marr and Heironymous are two names in the history of the First Germanna Colony. Lang is sometimes said to be a member of the Second Colony. Wielands married Blankenbühlers in Germany, and in Virginia. (Later, another cemetery with many Germanna names will be mentioned.) Since the average cemetery does not include a single Germanna name, the presence of so many Germanna names is noteworthy.
What we found from other sources was that the history of the families of the Germanna community is richer and of more depth than had been known previously. Much work remains to be done though. When it is completed, we will probably learn that our ancestors were involved in the larger struggles that shaped modern Germany. Some hints have appeared in these notes, and in Beyond Germanna, but the research on the history requires much more work.
To fit our ancestors into this picture seems to be the best and most fitting tribute to them, especially since so many sacrifices were involved on their part.
(30 May 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the [email protected] 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.