John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1926

There is a list, already mentioned, of German petitioners in London who asked for financial aid to return to Holland and to their homes in Germany.  It is not clear that this aid was forthcoming, so the list should not be considered a list of returnees.  They may have returned to Germany or they may have remained in England.  One would imagine that some of them found their way back to Germany on their own.  Others probably remained in England and found their way to Virginia (or America) in the next couple of years.

It had always bothered me that a number of the Germans came to Virginia in 1719.  Considering that the vanguard of the Second Colony came very late in 1717, or even more likely in 1718 (NS), how did word get back to these people in time for them to make the trip in 1719?  It is conceivable that letters back would have informed people in Germany that the first people had gone to Virginia and not to Pennsylvania, but this seems to be stretching the possibilities.  In other words, how did Frederick Kabler, George Long, and Christopher Yowell know to go to Virginia?  If these three had stayed in England, it would have been much easier to communicate with them.  In particular, the contacts may have been made through the Lutheran Church in London, to which the Second Colony said they make their arrival in the New World known when they had arrived.

There were two more names on the petition of 1717 that provoke extreme interest.  Six of the consecutive names read:

Hans Martin Haman(2),
Kilian Reiß [Reiss or Reis](3),
Hans George Heer [Herr](5),
Hans Martin Volck (7),
Christofle Gemelich (5),
Zacharias Ehrhardt (1)
The numbers in parentheses indicate the size of the party.  The middle two names are of special interest at this time, for they can be considered as coming from two adjacent farms.

Hans Martin Volck is identified as being associated with the Wagonbach Farm.  Elke Hall made some study of this family, as did Gary Zimmerman and Johni Cerny in “ Before Germanna ”.  Hans George Heer may be possibly a son of Hans Herr of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Hans Herr is identified with the Unterbiegelhof Farm.  Now the interesting thing is that the Wagonbach Farm and the Unterbiegelhof Farm are very close to each other.  Both were estate farms in the early Eighteenth Century, with the work being done by hired labor.

The Herrs were Anabaptists, while the Volcks were not.  The association here on the list probably arises from their common physical origins.  The sizes of the original farms are unknown, but the distance from the center of one farm to the center of the other is only two or three miles.  As large estate farms, they may have readily abutted each other.  The fact that these two names can be associated with two close, if not adjacent farms, indicates to me the association above that I have made above is probably correct.  Thus, it would seem that a Volck family set out in 1717 but did not make it.  The Volck family may have remained in England for a while, and they may have gone to Pennsylvania for a while.  It seems, though, that this association helps to place the Germanna Walk family.  (Elke Hall believes that Walk is a derivative of Volck).

A Personal Note.  My daughter is married to a descendant of Hans Herr from Unterbiegelhof, while she is a descendant of George Utz from Wagonbach.  I have had the pleasure of being on both of these farms.
(19 Jul 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.