I have with me print copies of the Marriage and Baptism Registers for Gemmingen (Baden, Germany), from 1696 to 1718. I have spent some time looking for evidence of a name which might be considered the origin of the name Barlow in the Germanna community. There was only one instance in which I found any evidence (though it might pay to search more).
On the fifth day of February in the year 1704, Johannes Bühla (Bühl? or Buehl?, where the ? mark indicates some uncertainty as to the letter) married Elisabetha Dorothea Boscher. Johannes was a citizen of Gemmingen, and a brick maker plus an undeciphered occupation that seems to start “ ges ”. Elisabetha’s father was Hanss, and he was denoted as a judge and other undeciphered activities. Both Johannes and Elisabetha were legitimate children of their parents. The banns were read three times.
After this start, there is no mention of the couple in the Baptismal Registers, as either parents or sponsors.
Whether the name Bähla could become Barlow eventually is not for me to say. The fact that P and B were commonly used in Virginia as the first letter means very little.
The reason that I looked in Gemmingen is that the Barlows and the Smiths were associated in a land patent in Virginia, and the Smiths were from Gemmingen.
The church in Gemmingen had several people who were not Lutherans. There were Reformed and Catholic people, and perhaps Anabaptists who might not have wanted to attend the Church but were forced to go to the Church, the only one in town, to be married.
I hope to do a more detailed study of the Gemmingen Registers to see if I can find more information on the several families that left in 1717; however, this will be time consuming. I have already ordered the microfilms for Gemmingen so I can get a copy of the Death Register also.
In 1716, I did not find any marriage of a Smith with anyone as was suggested here recently might be the case. There could have been a marriage in another village.
(28 Aug 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.