Betty Johnson asked questions about George Shively, and, in particular, could he be a Shirley or Shurley. This one is easy for me though I allow that Betty has a good question. The answer is "No".
I believe that the George Shively family, or, in better German, Scheible, originated in Austria. When one is on the Plankenbichl hilltop farm, which is the Blankenbaker homestead not far out of Gresten in Austria, one can see down in the valley, about one-half mile away, the Scheiblau farm. Then, a generation later, some of the Blankenbakers are to be found in Neuenbürg, Germany, just north of Oberwisheim. And, there is a Georg Scheible (and close variants) in the village also. Then, a few years later, there is a series of Land Patents in the Robinson River Valley. I gave the sequence in the last Note which has George Shively. He is right in the middle of the people from Neuenbürg.
So we have the following possible comparison:
Blankenbaker, Scheible?,
on the Plankenbichl farm on the Schaiblau farm
[!Both in Austria, about one-half mile apart!]
Blankenbaker, Scheible,
in Neuenbürg in Neuenbürg
[!Both in Neuenbürg (in the same church)!]
Blankenbakers, Scheible, or Shively, as John Mickall wrote it,
on Robinson River on Robinson River
[!Both in John Mickall's survey!]
George Scheible had only daughters, and, though three of them came to America, we have evidence that only one of them, Anna Elisabetha, lived. She married Michael Holt.
I am convinced that the Scheibles had their origins in Austria, though I have no proof. The coincidence of names in Austria, Germany, and Virginia is just too much for me not to accept otherwise. It does mean something to say they lived on the next farm. In this case we have a sequence of three locations and we find a close physical association in all three.
It happens that I believe there were other Germanna families who had their origins in Austria. They moved to Germany as the first stage and then moved to Virginia.
There is an error in the history of the larger Scheible family in Neuenbürg by Zimmerman and Cerny. They were not sure about the maiden name of George Scheible's wife. They took a guess, which was wrong.
(29 Aug 03)
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.