Last week, while I was transcribing the Communion lists for the German Lutheran Church in Culpeper County (Hebron Church today, and located now in Madison County), I encountered some names that were not familiar to me. Within two days, Bob Lotspeich out of the blue sent me some information about a family of this name. Then a member of the family sent me more. The family name is Ernst or Earnest, and they had a prominent place in Greene County, Tennessee.
The Ernst family originated in Switzerland and the pastor there left notes in which he explained that he had admonished several families who were thinking about going to America not to go. They did leave, though, and most of the people do appear in Philadelphia, on board one ship in 1743. The father, Hans Ernst, and the mother, do not appear on the list. There were two children, Henry and Anna, who were "bound out" by an orphan’s court. Apparently, for reasons that are not entirely clear, they were in Virginia.
Henry was in the home of a Lawrence Stephens, and later married their daughter, Mary Stephens, who was to be his partner for life. They were married about 1761, and before long had moved to North Carolina and then Tennessee, settling in Greene County. He built a substantial home there in 1784, the Earnest Fort House, which still stands today. The name Earnestville marks where they lived.
Much less is known about Henry’s sister Anna, who came to America with him, arriving as orphans. Some people have stated that Anna was never heard from again, and others have heard that she never married but did parish work in Virginia.
Now, the names that I found in the Communion lists at Hebron were:
This would appear to be a family perhaps of Christina and Jacob, with two daughters, Anna Maria and Elisabeth. So, the match to the Earnest family story is not good, but I will not throw out the information yet. Rupp records the names of seventeen Ernst men or families so the name is one of the more common names. Until I am proven wrong, I will consider the Ernst family of Tennessee as an allied family. And if they were present in Greene County for any length of time, then there were probably marriages to proven Germanna folks.
Incidentally, the Earnest family plans a big reunion in Greene County in 2002, at which time they expect to make a big donation of historical materials to the Greenville Library.
(30 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.