I spent some time Thursday at the local LDS Family History Center looking at the film for Sulzfeld, the home of Christopher Zimmerman just prior to emigration. I was especially interested to see if any other Germanna names turned up. In the decades starting about 1670, the records are especially rich in Zimmerman records.
Not long after the end of The Thirty Years' War (1648) , Michael Zimmerman moved from Steffisburg, Canton of Bern (Switzerland), to Sulzfeld, where he worked on the Rabenperg estate. Today, we call it Ravensburg. This translocation was probably due to the need for workers in southwest Germany due to the great loss of life during the war.
We know that Michael was from Steffisburg because his wife Bendicta died in Sulzfeld. Michael remarried and this marriage record tells us that Michael Zimmerman, widower, from Stiffisburg married Elisabetha, the surviving widow of Hans Lehman from Stiffisburg. It is not entirely clear yet whether Elisabetha was already living in Sulzfeld, or whether Michael went back to Steffisburg. The marriage was performed in Sulzfeld, suggesting that the Lehmans had moved also from Steffisburg to Sulzfeld.
Three sons of Michael, Johannes, Christian, and Michael, married in Sulzfeld. They appear as parents from 1669 to 1689. Starting in 1688, one of the grandsons starts appearing in the Baptismal Register in Sulzfeld, and his (the grandson's) third child, Hans Christoph, was the emigrant to America.
A few names occur in connection with the Zimmermans that should be studied. Johannes Zimmerman married Regina Wegmann, and Christian Zimmerman married Maria Schuchter. Among the head rights used by Alexander Spotswood (see page 385 in Beyond Germanna ), was Hans Jerich Wegman, Anna Maria Wegman, Maria Margaret Wegman, and Maria Gotlieve Wegman. We believe these were people who came in 1717. The Schuchter name was the surname of Anna Barbara Schön's second husband (she married, first, a Blankenbaker and, third, a Fleshman).
I am interested in Steffisburg because it was a center of Anabaptist conversions in the 1660s. Among the names there is a Her (Herr) and a Lehman. The name Lehman is a very honorable Anabaptist name in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (some members of this family lived briefly in the Robinson River Valley).
Speaking of Herrs, the tour season for the Hans Herr House has commenced. Though I am normally there the first Saturday of the month, this month I will be there tomorrow (Saturday, 10 Apr 04) leading tours of the house. The weather forecast is for sunny weather, though it may be cool, especially in the house itself with its thick stone walls.
(09 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.