The last twenty Notes or so have been directed toward a couple of very broad aims.
The first aim was to establish that the Germanna Colonies were a part of a much broader movement that started about 1709. In fact, some of the people we call Germanna Colonists may have been in the 1709 emigration. Whether they were or not, it is true that the 1709 emigration had a tremendous impact on the events of the following years. In Nassau-Siegen, the residents could see in 1711, 1712, and 1713 that their neighbors and relatives had made it to America, and that the Nassau-Siegen residetns' own immigration was a possibility for them to consider. And the same thing was happening in the Kraichgau, though perhaps it was not quite as intensive there.
The second aim was to perhaps broaden our definition of First Colony and Second Colony. We clearly have seen that many left with known members of the Second Colony, but they did not make it to America in late 1717 or early 1718. Were they members of the Second Colony?
Fred Zimmerman and Johni Cerny said the Second Colony was much larger than the traditional numbers. We see now that one reason for their statement was that some of the people were delayed in transit. To take an example, Frederick Kabler is usually counted as a later arrival. But he started with the known members of the Second Colony. Probably, our best answer, or classification, is something like "Delayed members of the Second Colony".
Both of these points indicate that we should take a more liberal view of what constitutes a Germanna Colonist. We do not know, with any certainty, who exactly left Nassau-Siegen before 1713, who left in 1713, and who left later. Of those who left in 1713, did some of them return to Germany after the discouragement of London? We know traditionally that some of the later arrivals from Nassau-Siegen have never been counted as Germanna Colonists. I have pointed out in these Notes that the Critz (Kreutz) family should be counted, but never has been except for my mention.
Of course, we have a long way to go to find the origins of some of the Germanna Colonists. But that is another story.
I am inclined to believe that the later Germans who moved to the Germanna area (east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia) often had a good reason for moving there. In many cases we have never identified even the possible reasons.
This is expected to be the last Note for a few days. I have to prepare for the Germanna Reunion this coming weekend and the time is drawing nigh. My talk is, in theory, written, but it needs reviewing.
(20 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.