John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 2201
We start another hundred in these Notes and I usually comment at these points on the purposes of the Notes. The basic objective is to start and maintain active discussions concerning our Germanna ancestors. I try to vary my comments so as to be of interest to different people. I am amazed, no matter what the subject is that I write about, that the material raises a point of interest to someone. That is good because the more people that read these Notes, the better chance there is that someone will have a comment on questions or statements raised by others. And we have several people who suggest lines of research and sources of information or share their findings. This is good.
There seem to be correspondents who read these Notes who are not Germanna descendants, or who are perhaps uncertain whether they are. I receive many inquiries about surnames which are totally foreign to me. I try to answer each of these even though they are unknowns to me because even a negative answer can be helpful.
Our Germanna ancestors started coming to Virginia in 1714. The stream of immigrants never stopped, and we can identify additions through the time of the Revolution. We basically confine our attention to the Germans who settled or lived on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Germans who lived in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge generally have a different history, but there are interactions between the groups so that we do find ourselves involved in the Shenandoah Valley history. For example, Phillip Chelf seems to have had a record in the Shenandoah Valley before he appears in the Robinson River Valley.
Of course, our Germanna ancestors did not stay in Virginia, and so our research leads us to other states.
One of our biggest problems is the widespread appearance of some surnames. Names such as Cook (Koch) and Smith (Schmidt/Schmitt) and Huffman (Hofman/Hoffmann) are so prevalent that research is hampered. We have, in many cases, so little information that identities are uncertain. We then must have recourse to associations which are less certain. In turn, this leads to inquiries by researchers who are exploring the possibilities.
Therefore, we must expect inquiries which will, in the end, be negative. But if we are good citizens and researchers we will try to help everyone in a spirit of cooperation.
(21 Nov 05)