There are many documents which have a bearing on the Germanna Colonies. In some cases, one may not appreciate their significance, or where to find them. When one is getting started, a good thing to do is to look at the bibliographies of the writers in the field. One of these writers is Klaus Wust, who wrote the book " The Virginia Germans ", which won awards for its excellence. Since his established credentials are excellent, you will want to search for everything that he has written.
Many times the best parts of an article are the notes or bibliography telling where the author found his information. To give an example, in the Yearbook of German-American Studies , Klaus wrote an article entitled " Palatines and Switzers for Virginia, 1705-1738: Costly Lessons for Promoters and Emigrants ". This appears in volume 19 in 1984, pp. 43-55. Maybe I will review this article later.
One reference that he gives in it is Charles E. Kemper, ed., " Documents Relating to Early Projected Swiss Colonies in the Valley of Virginia, 1706-1709 ". This appeared in " Virginia Magazine of History and Biography ", vol. 29 (1921). Now your first thought might be that this has nothing to do with the Germanna Colonies. As you examine the available material, you will realize that the Germanna Colonies are one branch of the successors to these proposed Swiss colonies. You will see that the Germanna Colonies did not spring forth from nothing; there was a history prior to them.
(I have always wondered if Charles E. Kemper was trying to correct the mistakes that his kinsman, Willis M. Kemper, made. There is a lesson to be learned when reading someone else’s story or history. How well is it documented? Does the interpretation of the facts seems reasonable? Incidentally, ask these questions of the material to be found on the Internet.)
[Note from Editor and Web Site Manger: If you don't remember anything else in the above paragraph, you MUST take heed of John's question about information found on the Internet, especially information found in databases submitted to various services by individual researchers! If you find data on Rootsweb.com, Family.com, the LDS web site, or any other site where databases are available, YOU MUST KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE DATABASES WERE PREPARED AND SUBMITTED BY PEOPLE WHO USUALLY DO NOT VERIFY NAMES, DATES, PLACES, OR EVENTS WITH SOURCE DOCUMENTS !!!!! And, much of the data in these databases is based on information that was available decades ago, and which has since been proven to be erroneous. This Internet/Web data IS useful for finding links or tie-ins in one's family tree, but the actual data is to be taken as approximations, or even guesses. GWD]
Here are some other references from Wust:
Franz Michel’s account, " Kurzer Bericht über die Amerikanische Reiss ", which was printed in J. H. Graff, " Franz Michel von Bern und seine Reisen nach Amerika 1701-1704 ", in the Neues Berner Taschenbuch auf 1898 (Bern, 1897) . I have previously mentioned W. J. Hinke’s English translation with annotations.
The Gewerckenbuch was the plan of Johann Justus Albrecht to establish a mining company in America. The original of this is the Spotsylvania Court House, and a translation of it from the German was made by Elke Hall in Beyond Germanna, v.5, n.1 (1993) .
Speaking of
Beyond Germanna
, there should be copies of this in the new Germanna Foundation Library. I looked last Sunday and not a single copy was to be seen. I suspect the copies disappeared from the Germanna Community College Library.
(21 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.