Before we got over to London and the petition to the King there, we were looking at A. L. Keith's article in the William and Mary Quarterly entitled the " German Colony of 1717 ". He was writing in 1917, two hundred years after the 1717 Colony came. The editors of the William and Mary Quarterly were very broad minded to publish an article in 1917 with the word German in the title. In this year, most people were denying their German heritage. Over in London, the royal family had changed their name to mask their German origins.
In his three part article, Keith tried to trace some of the history of the Second Colony members. His sources were The Garr Genealogy and the original records such, as deeds, wills, etc. The articles became quite famous and were a starting point for many other researchers. I remember that in the summer of 1947, when I was in the US Navy at Washington, DC, I went to the Library of Congress and consulted their card index on a certain name. The resultant article by Keith was a gold mine of information that I had not known. (I had thought that my father, brothers, and an uncle were the only Blankenbakers in the world.)
Keith made a few errors which continue to show up in genealogies, even 84 years later. One error was to say that Jacob Blankenbaker, son of the immigrant John Nicholas B., married Barbara Utz. This was based on a misreading of the will of George Utz. Jacob was married only twice, once to Mary Barbara Thomas (daughter of John Thomas, Jr.), and once to Hannah Weaver.
Keith also made the statement that a second John Broil came in 1719 as a naturalization certificate was said to have had this information. James E. Brown in recent times reexamined these records and could not find this John Broil. What he did find was a John Bell.
Keith also said that Peter Broil, or Broyles, married Elizabeth Blankenbaker, the daughter of Zacharias B., the son of John Nicholas B. He was close, but no cigar, as Elizabeth was the stepdaughter of Zacharias. Her mother was Els, nee unknown, and Els' husband is also unknown (he may have been a Finks if one book of family history is correct). All of Zacharias' children are given in the birth register at the Hebron Church.
Another statement that Keith makes is that Adam Yager married Susan Kobler, in October 1727. There is no known written record for this and it may be an oral tradition. More research on the Kobler family in Germany may shed some light on this. Certainly this statement is widely repeated, but the truth or falsity of it remains to be determined.
On the whole, Keith, with the help of The Garr Genealogy, advanced the Second Colony family history to a new plateau, which stood for several decades.
(04 Oct 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.