I thought that we might return to the two earlier Notes that dealt with the "history" of Eva Susannah Margaret Hart. I think that most of us might agree that the story told there was obviously gilded with a liberal application of imagination. Was there any basis in fact for the story there? Let us assume that there may have a mixup between the male and female ancestors. Though the story was told as Eva Susannah Margaret’s, let us try some aspects of it as pertaining to the Thomas family and see if that could have been the source of elements of the story.
The Thomas family had Fisher cousins (Ludwig Fischer married Anna Barbara Blankenbuehler). The Fishers held to the belief that Ludwig (Lewis) had an estate in Germany and their imaginations led them to think that Lewis was a Baron with a castle on the Rhine. There was no basis in fact for this belief but the Thomases may have been trying to keep up with their Fisher cousins.
The belief that Eva was "kidnaped" and taken on board a ship might have some basis in that, apparently, the Thomas family was taken, with the others of the 1717 Colony, by Capt. Tarbett to Virginia when he had promised to take them to Pennsylvania. In essence, the entire Second Colony was highjacked or kidnaped. They were sold to Lt. Gov. Spotswood and became his indentured servants. So the kidnaping and the indentures in Virginia might have had some basis in fact.
The Second Colony was sent to the west of Fort Germanna, and in going there they would have seen Fort Germanna even though the fort disappeared not long after that. The reason for the fort was protection from the Indians. So the story about the wall to protect the Wilson family from the Indians could have been a ghost of Fort Germanna.
The Eva story said that she and her lover, Adam Thomas, went to Fort Duquesne near present-day Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Later, Adam went to "Culpepper", Virginia. This has some basis in fact since Michael Thomas did move from Culpeper County, Virginia, to southwestern Pennsylvania. In the Eva story, the direction is reversed.
The fact that the Adam Thomas was in reality Michael may not have been an error, but a reflection that his baptismal name was Adam Michael. The people who made up the story used the Adam while Michael himself used his calling name.
(Please do not take this comment as an authority to give his name as Adam Michael.)
So even though this story has farfetched elements, there may have some basis in fact for parts of it. I have no idea how the Spanish or many of the other details came in. But the kidnaping, the indenture, the wall for protection from the Indians, and reference to Pennsylvania may have had some actual basis within the Thomas family. But to find to find the facts given in just the story would be hard.
(13 Apr 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.