In studying the patents that apply to the Robinson River Valley with a view to classifying the patentees as German or English, it is necessary to know something of the origin of the German names. For example, there were Carpenters among the early patentees. Were they English or German? Some descendants of the Carpenters think of themselves as being of an English origin since Carpenter seems to an English name. When one looks at the history in detail, one sees that the story is more complicated. We find that the Carpenters were naturalized , which would only be necessary if they were not English. In German, the Carpenter name would be given as Zimmerman, since that means the same thing. That there is a family called Carpenter seems to have come about because when a second Zimmerman family arrived there was already a Zimmerman family here who was not related. The second and later Zimmerman family decided to adopt the Carpenter name to distinguish themselves.
Many other of the German names were changed into English equivalents. The Schmidt family became Smiths. The Koch family became the Cook family. Again, these were occupational names meaning the same thing. Thomas is both an English name and a German name. The German origins of all these families have been traced. The German name Hold became Holt in English because the German pronunciation sounds more like Holt. The German Barlows adopted that spelling since the German was close to an English spelling and sound. Another German name that changed into parts that sound more English is Blankenbaker.
German names appearing in the 1726 patent list are Clore, Snider, Crigler, Cook, Fleshman, Scheible, Yager, Carpenter, Thomas, Blankenbaker (three times for three different men), Smith (twice for two different men), Barlow, Utz, Smith, Motz, Harnsberger, Moyer, Kaefer, Broyles, and Holt. In the 1728 patents, the names include Holt, Rouse, Wayland, Castler, Moyer, Blankenbaker (again three times), Willheit, Carpenter, Kerker, Yowell, Clore, Vinegunt, Thomas, Broyles, Fleshman, Crigler, and Tanner. Some of these names are duplicates of the 1726 names. A little later, the German names, Hoffman, Long, Stoltz, Crees, Bloodworth, Amberger, Ballenger, and again Blankenbaker and Carpenter appear. Still later names include Manspile, Zimmerman, Clemans, Garr, Schlater, Thomas, Tanner, Kains, Vaught, Baumgardner, Weaver, Willheit, and Walk. This only comes up to about 1736.
Because several of the German names are duplicates of English names, the early German contribution to the settlement in the Robinson River Valley has not been recognized.
(17 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.