Following this note, there will be short break to allow attendance at the East Tennessee Reunion. Certainly East Tennessee received its share of Germanna people but many other areas did also. Boone County, Kentucky, seems as if must be populated with Germanna citizens. They even got the minister from the Hebron Church. A little to the north, Preble County, Ohio, had many Germanna settlers. North Carolina got its share; at least Rowan County did, but then Rowan County seems to have covered half the state.
Mary Doyle Johnson used to sponsor a Saturday luncheon in central Kentucky for Germanna descendants. She had to do this without any support or help from the Germanna Foundation (even though it was requested). When I was active in the Germanna Foundation, I argued that the Foundation should think of itself as a national organization and not as a local group. That could mean the Foundation would sponsor meetings in different locations around the country. It might, for instance, sponsor one meeting outside Virginia each year. This meeting might rotate among different areas. The ways in which the Foundation might help include supplying names and addresses of people in the area. It might maintain a speakers bureau of people who would be willing to travel. It could help with the organization of such events.
I understand that Thom Faircloth, the new president of the Foundation, will be at the East Tennessee meeting. This is good and I look forward to hearing what he will say. It will be fresh air to hear his comments. Incidentally, I think you can expect that Thom will listen to what you have to say. You may contact him at any time at the email address office@germanna.org . (Be careful to use .org not .com , or else you will get me). If you wish, you can mail communications to:
MEMORIAL FOUNDATION OF THE
GERMANNA COLONIES IN VIRGINIA
P.O. Box 693
Culpeper, VA 22701-0693.
I think that we can say the Foundation is going to need volunteers. Some of the work will be dependent upon access to the home area and its repositories. But much work can be done from a remote location. For an example of how people can work together, look at the Germanna Colonies list and web pages. Perhaps the Foundation should put its printed records into an electronic format. At the same time, the Foundation must ask the question of what percentage of its members do not have access to the Internet.
The Germanna Colonists are a rare breed of people we like to think. There is hardly any similar group which has more history than we do. This is both before their emigration from Europe and after their immigration to America. There is so much history that not all of the facts and fictions have been sorted out. And, unfortunately, there are still some fictions floating around. Maybe someday the Foundation can get active members near some of the depositories in Europe.
(07 Sep 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.