I thought I would expand on the theme of why I am especially interested in Ludwig Fisher. Back in volume 2 of Beyond Germanna , I did a study of who built the "Hebron" Church. For this purpose, I used the Orange County tithe lists, which seemed to give a good report on the Germans living in the Robinson River Valley. There were a number of surprises, but the one that caught my attention vividly was that two of the tax collectors in the same year found a Ludwig Fisher living in their precinct. [See page 93 of Beyond Germanna .]
James Pickett found a Lodowick Fisher living south of the Robinson River. John Mickell found a Ludwick Fisher living north of the Robinson River. In the latter case, Ludwig Fisher was living on the farm of Balthasar Blankenbaker, his father-in-law. Since the will of Balthasar left land to his daughter or son-in-law where they were living, it was natural to expect Ludwig on Baltz' place. What should be made of these enumerations of Ludwig?
I remembered that Margaret James Squire had mentioned that Ludwig Fischer was a sponsor for one of the children of Christoph Zimmermann in Sulzfeld. [Page 116] This particular Ludwig could not be the Ludwig who married Anna Barbara Blankenbaker, since he would be too old, about a generation. Therefore, I formed the idea that perhaps the original Ludwig was the father of the Ludwig who married Anna Barbara Blankenbaker. Perhaps both of them came to Virginia because of their knowledge of Christopher Zimmerman. Here the two Ludwig Fishers became merged into one and it was not recognized that there were actually two.
When I first broached this idea, James Brown, objected to it. He was more inclined to think that a simple mistake had been made. It has come to my attention, from the writings of A. L. Keith, that Jacob Broyles on 29 JAN 1743 was surety for [the] estate of Ludwig Fisher, in regard to a negro attached to Isaac Smith. [Page 149] Since the Ludwig who married Anna Barbara Blankenbaker died about 1773, I took this as evidence that there was a father who had died. This still did not persuade James Brown. He wrote an article debunking my theory (he did so in a good-natured way). [Page 301]
Meanwhile, the question has never been settled. Unfortunately, James Brown is gone now. I continue to search in Germany hoping to find the origins of Ludwig Fischer and perchance to settle the question of whether his father was another Ludwig. Meanwhile, there has been quite a bit to write about Lewis Fisher in the Robinson River Valley. In one analysis, I said that the Garrs (who wrote the book) were wrong about the family of Lewis Fisher. They did not have the correct set of children with the right names. [Page 471] Extensive use was made of the church records to determine the members of the family and their names. Ellen John wrote about the confusion the misnaming of a daughter caused. She presented further evidence as to the correct name. [Page 805]
James Brown also wrote an article about the German estate of Lewis Fisher. This estate had been overblown until the imaginations of a few descendants became inflamed with the thought of riches. An investigation in Germany could find nothing. [Page 501]
Altogether, the name Fisher is to be found 327 times in the fifteen volumes of Beyond Germanna.
(01 Apr 04)
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.