Dorothy Ambergey Griffith recently informed the List about the Ambergey Reunion to be held this coming July. To find the full details, Col. Griffith (yes, she is an honorary Colonel of Kentucky) sent us to the web page for the family (www.ambergeyfamily.org). I am not an Amberger descendant but I look fondly on the family and its people.
My general introduction to them was on the occasion of a "Friday-before-the-Germanna-Reunion-get-together" of nineteen of the Ambergey family members. I led the group to the land parcels of the 1717 Conrad Amberger in the Mt Pony area, the boundaries of which would later would become the Culpeper-Madison county line. Next, we visited the Hebron Church which had been opened for us. Another visitor to the Church at the same time, Thom Faircloth, played the organ for us. The group then went to the restaurant in downtown Madison (now closed) where we ate supper together. We had a great time together, which was marred only by the heat wave which was melting the tar in the road.
The Hitt family has a history of special meetings at the Germanna Reunion and I believe more families should try for this sort of thing. This makes a special reason for family members to attend the Germanna Reunion by having the bonus of a family meeting.
A. L. Keith thought all of the 1717 Colony moved to the Robinson River Valley at the same time. He was wrong about this. Christopher Zimmerman and Conrad Amberger moved to the Mt Pony area, which is outside the Robinson River Valley. Zimmerman remained the rest of his life there, but Conrad Amberger moved closer to the larger German community of the Second Colony people. The family was still quite a distance from the German Lutheran Church, and they seem not to have been involved in it.
One of the things that I like about the Ambergey Family Association is that they have a scholarship fund to help any Amberger descendant with his/her college expenses. Some of their fund raising (and fun raising) is in connection with this fund.
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Tomorrow is my turn at the Hans Herr House. The forecast is for beautiful weather. The Director was just saying that the talks given by ALL of the Saturday guides have brought forth comments such as, "Best house tour that I have ever been on." The basic reason for this is that the story is very interesting and the visual aspects are very good.
(12 Jun 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.