The eldest son of Christopher Zimmerman, the immigrant, was John, who was born in 1711. In Virginia, he married Ursula Blankenbaker, the sister of Zacharias Blankenbaker, who was also born in Germany. Both John and Zacharias lived until Madison County was formed, so they lived in Germany, Essex County, Spotsylvania County, Orange County, Culpeper County, and Madison County; yet they moved only twice (John may have moved three times).
John died in 1796, the father of seven children. In giving the children here, I am following Margaret James Squires who was a reputable researcher, and who spent some time on this family.
The third child, Elizabeth, has a similar estimate for her birth year, and she married Joseph Holtzclaw, after his first wife, a Thomas, died.
Dorothy Zimmerman had a hard life, in that she lost her husband, Jacob, when she was about forty years old, with six youngsters in the home. I believe she was also physically handicapped. Jacob had been drafted in 1781, and died while he was in the army, just after the victory at Yorktown. In 1794, Dorothy filed a petition with the House of Delegates of Virginia asking for a pension, which was granted.
Two of the Zimmerman children, a brother and a sister, married two Tanner children, a sister and a brother, respectively. The Tanner and the Zimmerman families lived not far from each other, a couple of miles north of the German Lutheran Church.
Perhaps John Zimmerman outlived Ursula, his wife, by about ten years, since the last year she appears at the church is 1787.
Rosina (Zimmerman) Samuel appears at church with the Samuel surname starting in 1789 and extending through 1796. She appeared as Rosina Zimmerman in 1775. A Rosina Zimmerman appeared as late as 1787, which is probably her. In the civil records, women who had the name Rosina at church usually were called Rosanna.
(23 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.