Here are three reference works which would be valuable to have in a library.
Franz Michel wrote letters to his brother in Switzerland describing his trip to Virginia. These are in French and are located in a library in Switzerland, but fortunately Prof. Wm. J. Hinke translated them, and published them in the " Virginia Magazine of History and Biography ", starting with the January 1916 issue. It might not be possible to have the VMHB itself, but perhaps a copy can be procured.
Christoph von Graffenried left three manuscripts in Swiss libraries which tell of his experiences in America. The essence of these has been captured by Vincent H. Todd, and his original publication has been reprinted by Heritage Books. The title of this is " Christoph von Graffenried’s Account of the Founding of New Bern, (North Carolina) ". This will help to clear up many of the misconceptions about what Graffenried was doing.
Another useful reference work is " The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood ", from the Collections of the Virginia Historical Society, New Series, v.1 (1882). This is not complete, and can be augmented by the Colonial Documents Collection on microfilm at the Virginia State Library. In back of this are the original documents in the Public Record Office and other repositories in England. (Please note that the PRO is a bit "sticky" about copies of their documents being reproduced, even if they are three hundred years old.)
Collectively, these works will help one obtain a good background on why the Germanna Colonies came about and what the early colonists did do in America.
Marc Wheat mentioned the book " The Book of Names, Especially Relating to the Early Palatine and the First Settlers of the Mohawk Valley " in a reprint by the Genealogical Pub. Co., 1969, ©1933. I am not familiar with this book. It may duplicate some other works or it may have improved information.
Marc has itemized several unique items which are of interest. For example, he observes that the Rev. Frederick Haeger appears in the records of the Church of England Missionary Society records (called the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for a while). Copies of these records would be of interest to Germanna historians, and especially to Häger descendants. As a result of the contact between Rev. Frederick Häger and the Society, the Rev. appears to have been sponsored by them for work with the Germans in New York. Before he was approved, there were several items which the Society considered and made notes of.
(19 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.