There are several reasons for studying the emigration from Germany in 1709, even for students of the later emigrations. What reasons did the Germans have in 1709? If several people have left your neighborhood in 1709, and if a man appears in 1710 seeking people to work in America, do you think the people in 1710 will pay more attention? Probably the reasons that people left in 1709 are still valid. Whereas, those who left in 1709 had no firm promise or commitment for their future support, the man who appeared in 1710 appeared to be making firm promises. Are the people who left in 1709 your friends and relatives? In the Siegen area, we know that one of the people who left in 1709 would prove to be the son of a man who left later for America. Would there be other cases similar to this? What happened to this particular Siegen emigrant of 1709? Why did he go to America?
What were the motives of the man who appeared in Siegen in 1710, seeking miners to work in the silver mines in America? Was he acting on his own, or was he an agent for someone else? When you dig a bit, you will find that he was in the employment of George Ritter and Company, of which Christoph von Graffenried was field director. So, why was Graffenried trying to hire miners? Was he in the mining business? He admits that he was influenced by the writings and conversations of Franz Michel. What did Michel say that inflamed Graffenried?
So we need to know more about Graffenried and Michel. We will learn as we dig, that Michel had been in America, probably twice, and he thought he had made important discoveries. What had Michel been looking for? By a solid implication, he was looking for a place to put a colony of Anabaptists, in order to get them out of Switzerland.
What I am saying is, if you want to know why your ancestors came to America, you will have to dig into history for many years prior to their departure from Germany.
To change the subject slightly, but only slightly, because, in a general sense, we are talking about the Evelyn C. Martin Library in the Germanna Visitor's Center. Some of you who were not present last Sunday (July 15) may have missed part of the story. The Evelyn C. Martin Library in the Center was made possible by a gift of Mary M. Bourland, in honor of her mother. The library now has bookcases, filing cabinets, and computers for researchers to use as a result of her generosity. Mrs. Bourland, with others, worked hard last week to transfer materials from the Germanna Community College Library, and to check them into the new library. Also, reference material from the old Foundation office building is being incorporated.
This is the physical library that the Foundation is hoping to build into a useful research tool, in probably two ways. One is by actual books and documents that we would expect to find in a library. Second, could be a digital data base of history and genealogy. Using some of the suggestions of Marc Wheat, I am naming a few books that could prove to be useful to a serious researcher.
(18 Jul 01)
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.