I have been writing recently about the Lehman family in many different spellings. Primarily, it was to emphasize that DNA testing had been useful to sort out the different branches. Some of the Lehmans appear to have come from diverse geographical backgrounds, but the great majority seem to have had an origin in Switzerland. A few of the branches are only marginally related as the common ancestor may have been in the Middle Ages or even B.C.
Many people are not familiar with the fact that the Germanna geographical area had a Lehman family for a short period of time. Our sources of information are two-fold, the "Hebron" Church Records and the civil records from around the time of the Revolution.
Gorg Lehman, 21, and Joh. Lehman, 15, were confirmed at "Hebron" on 22 May 1785. One other Lehman, Gorg, is a communicant on this same day. This latter man may be assumed to be the father of the two boys who were confirmed. Earlier, on Christmas Day in 1775, Georg and Michael Lehmann were communicants at "Hebron" without any wives.
Extensive research says that the Germanna Lehmans were descendants of Peter Lehman who came in 1717 as a Swiss Mennonite. This was the first family discussed in the DNA study. The line of descent is believed to be Peter to Jacob to George. This George is the father of George and John who were confirmed in 1785.
There may be another connection between the Lehmans and the Germanna people, especially the Second Colony. The National Genealogical Society Quarterly , vol. VIII, n.3, p.38, for October 1919, indicates that in 1671 a group of Bernese Mennonites immigrated from Berne, Switzerland. The family names of Leman, Shenk, Bachman, and Stauffer are in this group. Apparently these people settled first in Germany, a documented fact for several Mennonite families. Later they moved to America.
The Second Colony people left Germany very late in the year of 1717. It was so late, July, that one is surprised that they even left at all. I am suggesting that the Mennonites had been leaving earlier and this had set some of the Lutherans thinking about whether they might not do the same. So they made their decision late in imitation of the Mennonites who had left earlier.
The Lehman information in Germanna comes from Nancy Moyers Dodge who had permission from Earl R. Layman to use information he had sent her. Earl was the author of the article on DNA testing in the
Mennonite Family History
.
(06 Feb 06)
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.