I have been talking about the false stories that have circulated about Ludwig Fischer, and I didn't mention them all. To be truthful in my advertising, I must admit that there are some gaps in our knowledge of the man. And, at the same time, we have more facts than we have been able to assimilate.
In the 1739 list of Orange County tithables, Lewis Fisher makes an appearance twice. Once he is in one enumerator's precinct, on the south side of the Robinson River, and the other time he in another enumerator's list, on the north side of the Robinson River. (It just may be that the southern place was where he stayed in the winters, while in the summers he went to his northern place. I was going to make a little joke that a Baron ought to be able to afford two places, but I am afraid that if I do, it will appear in print tomorrow as evidence that he was a Baron.)
So far we do not know what to make of his appearance twice. Could it be there were two Lewis Fishers? Did the enumerators get their evidence from someone else who was confused? Maybe he did have two farms, and he lived for periods of time on each one.
If we were to find where Lewis Fisher hailed from in Germany, we might find our clues there. So far, we do not have definitive evidence. When Christopher Zimmerman took some children for baptism, sponsors included a Lewis Fisher and an Anna Barbara Fisher. These are the names of Lewis Fisher and his wife in Virginia. These sponsors are too early in time to be the ones that we definitely know in Virginia, but perhaps they were the parents of the Lewis Fisher that we do know. It might be the case that there was two couples in Virginia who had the same names, which would confuse the situation.
There is a document of the 1740's in the Orange County papers which refers to the "estate of Lewis Fisher", but James Brown argued that it was not proof of the death of anyone, since everyone, living or dead, has an estate.
The family of Lewis Fisher is fairly easily to construct (though it has been badly constructed by different sources). There are, above and beyond this family, other Fishers who appear to be living in the community. I am inclined to the view that there were two Lewis Fishers, probably father and son, in the Robinson River community. I think it is likely that the father had at least two sons, one of which was Lewis, Jr. Lewis, Jr. had a brother who was the source of some of the other Fishers. It would seem to be that the first place to look for information would be in Germany.
Since Christopher Zimmerman had his children baptized at Sulzfeld, I would search there and in the neighboring churches for information.
(11 Feb 02)
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.