One member of the Second Germanna Colony was not born in Germany; he was born in Switzerland. The man was Hans Heerensperger who became John Harnsberger in Virginia (or Hansberger and other variations). Hans Heerensperger was the seventh child of Jacob Heerensperger, born 1648, and his wife Maria Hoerndlin, born c. 1655. The births of seven children of this couple are recorded in the parish book for the Reformed Church in Bussnang. Hans Heerensperger was born 1 April 1688 in Affeltrangen, Thurgau, Switzerland.
The story of John Harnsberger and his early descendants was told in " Beyond Germanna " by Wanda Miller Cunningham. She graciously gave credit to Robert Torkelson for the information about the Swiss origins of John Harnsberger (and she gave credit to the late John Hansberger for information about other family members in America). One wonders, and it is only a wonder, whether Hans Heerensperger, as the seventh child, felt that his opportunities in Switzerland were limited by his position in the family, and so emigrated. What we do not know is whether Hans Heersenperger moved to Germany and lived there a while before leaving for America, or whether he emigrated directly from Switzerland to America.
There were many emigrants from Switzerland to Germany in the last half of the Seventeenth Century. There were economic opportunities created by the death of so many Germans in the Thirty Years War. Second, the Anabaptists in Switzerland were still being persecuted severely, and many left for the better security in France and Germany. Some were forcibly encouraged to leave Switzerland. Though Hans Heerensperger was not an Anabaptist, the flow of Reformed and Anabaptists to Germany may have suggested to him to move to Germany.
Some of the citizens of Sulzfeld in Germany had Swiss ancestors. The Zimmermann family originated in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. Michael Zimmermann, a native of Steffisburg, migrated from there to Sulzfeld, Baden, Germany, before 1665, with his wife Benedicta. She was the mother of his children, but she died in Sulzfeld and he married Elisabetha Albrecht, the widow of Hans Lehmann of Steffisburg, on 1 May 1666. More details about the Zimmermann family are told by Gary Zimmerman (no relation) and Johni Cerny in " Before Germanna ".
Though I personally am not a descendant of the Zimmermans, this story of the emigration of the Zimmermanns is of special interest to me. My son-in-law, Robert Killheffer, descends from a line of Anabaptists who lived in Steffisburg in Switzerland. This again suggests there were influences between the emigration of the Reformed people and the Anabaptists in Switzerland. (In Sulzfeld, the Zimmermanns attended the Lutheran church.) (07 Nov 05)
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.