John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 2101
As we enter the new centuries in these Notes (also at the half centuries), I customarily give some comments about the purpose and aims. The first thing to note is that my choice of subject is varied and sometimes strays off the narrow path. These off-the-base rambles should not be construed as illustrative of the primary purpose. I do digress some just because, after twenty-one hundred Notes, it gets to be harder to find material to write about. Also, I am not doing quite as much research as I did at one time and certainly I am not publishing as much. Every so often, some theme strikes me and I carry it out for a few Notes. I have been writing about my personal trips to Germany, which has been motivated in part by the planned trip of the Germanna Foundation to a number of homeland villages of the Germanna Colonists. These have been very successful, and, while they may be conducted slightly differently than the trips I made with Eleanor, they have been rewarding. There is no single way to travel.
I define a Germanna Colonist as anyone who is descended from a German-speaking individual who lived on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Eighteenth Century. One's ancestor may have come directly to Virginia, or may have come through one of the other colonies. Such an individual may be a man or woman. A person may have several "Germanna" ancestors, but the number has no significance. One is as good as twenty, in order to be called a "Germanna descendant".
Virginia geography is divided into three or four parts:
The easternmost part is the Tidewater Region along the coast, and extends inland as far as the rivers reflect the tides of the ocean. Running north and south through Virginia is the Fall Line where the rivers tumble down out of the Piedmont (i.e., the Foothills) into the Tidewater area. This Fall Line is approximately at Washington, D.C., Frederickburg, and Richmond, or the I-95 Interstate. The Piedmont extends to the west to the mountains, especially the Blue Ridge Mountains. Germanna was in the Piedmont and the first homes of the Germans were in the Piedmont. The Blue Ridge Mountains were thought to be a barrier to western expansion and they certainly did slow down the westward progress. Once one is over the Blue Ridge, then there is the Shenandoah Valley. In general, the residents of the Shenandoah Valley are not considered Germanna Colonists, but there were interactions between the Germans on the two sides of the Blue Ridge. (Many Shenandoah Valley German families married into "Germanna" families.)
On the west side of the Shenandoah Valley, the Appalachians start. The Valley was settled in two ways, but primarily from the north, namely from Pennsylvania and Maryland. One cannot do early research in the Shenandoah Valley without considering those two states. The Germanna Colonies were enriched by people from the north also. Many came into Philadelphia and immediately went down to Virginia. This was the result of trans-Atlantic travel patterns.
(29 Apr 05)