I have recounted that many of the names on the 1709 emigration from Nassau-Siegen were friends and relatives of the 1713 emigrants from Nassau-Siegen. Thus, the 1713 emigration can be viewed as a continuation of the 1709 emigration.
A similar thing happened in the region which later became Baden-Württemberg. For example, in 1709, Johannes Kugel, Berhard Zipperle, Johannes Keyser, and Georg Lapp, all of Unteröwisheim, left for America and made it to New York. This was a fairly large number of names from one village. In 1717, several families left who attended church in Unteröwisheim. They worshiped there, since their village, Neuenbürg, had no Protestant Church. These families included the three Blankenbaker brothers; their sister, Anna Maria, and her husband, John Thomas; the Scheible family; and the Fleshman family.
From Bonfeld, Simon Vogt, Johann Michael Wagelin, Johann Jost Hayd, and Sebastian Wimmer’s widow left in 1709. They all made it to New York, but Johann Jost Hayd went on to Virginia, where he was known as Jost Hite.
Several families of the 1709 immigration were from Mosbach. In 1717, George Utz and his wife, Barbara, came on to Virginia (expecting, though, to go to Pennsylvania). Though George Utz attended church in Hüffenhardt, his wedding bans were published in Mosbach. Two families came from Massenbach in 1709.
In 1709, 1713, and 1717, the emigration of just one individual from a village was rare. Usually, there would be more than one family from the village, or cluster of villages. Many times these families were related, see the case of the Neuenbürg emigrants in 1717. The group provided courage to the individual members.
Very often the fact that individuals emigrated from a village in 1709, led to additional emigrations in the following years. We saw this clearly in Oberfischbach (and the neighboring Trupbach) and in Neuenbürg. It is unfair to separate the emigrations in the different years into separate activities. It is better to regard all of the emigrations as one continuing pattern. After the first group left from a region, it would be the talk of many villages. There were no secrets; the news was widely shared. The knowledge that earlier families and individuals had left, and, in many cases, had been successful, would have encouraged the later people.
(This is a continuation of the thoughts in
Beyond Germanna
, page 36ff.)
(28 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.