Recent notes have suggested some material for discussion. In this Note, I would like to write about the Kaefers (Käfers) and others.
Early on in studying the Germanna colonies, I had been bothered by the marriage of Johann Nicolas Blanckenbuehler and Apollonia Kaefer. These two people came from villages that were twelve miles apart. That seemed like a long way for Nicolas to go to find a wife. It did not rest well with me. How did these two meet? That would be equivalent to going 240 miles today (3 mph vs. 60 mph).
When Eleanor and I went to Gresten, Austria, what I believe to be the answer began to dawn on me. But first, let me give what we observed about another family.
When one is on the hill where the Planckenbichl farm stands (the old home of the “Blankenbakers”) outside Gresten and looks down in the valley, one sees the Scheiblau farm about one-half mile away. This immediately suggests that the Scheibles in Neuenbuerg, Germany, where the Blanckenbuehlers were living in 1717, were also from Austria. The Scheibles left with the Blanckenbuehlers for America (the Scheibles are noted in St. Marys Lutheran Church in London). Then in Virginia, George Scheible had his land patent in the midst of the “Blankenbaker” clan and their known relatives. So I am absolutely convinced that the origin of the Germanna Scheible family was Gresten, Austria. The connection between the two families is unknown at the present time.
While driving around Gresten, one can’t help but note that there are Kaefers living there. Having observed that the emigration to locations along the Rhine River from Austria was more extensive than just the Blankenbakers, I began to think of the possibility that the Kaefers also emigrated from Austria and were probably, at least loosely, connected to the Blankenbakers and Scheibles. This solved my initial problem of how Nicholas Blankenbaker met Apollonia Kaefer. The families knew each other from Austria and were perhaps related.
The Kaefer name is not at all rare in Austria or Germany. It means “bug”. Some people tell me that it specifically might refer to “ladybugs”. Two Kaefers came to Virginia. Apollonia came as the wife of John Nicholas Blankenbaker. Her brother, Michael, came as a bachelor and was probably loosely attached to his sister. When Anna Maria Blankenbaker Thomas’ husband John died, Michael married her. The children in these two families were double cousins. The Kaefer name died out when Michael sired only five daughters. I have wondered if the Cofer family who lived in the area was not a Kaefer but researchers tell me he had a different origin for his name. I used to spell the name as Kaifer as it was not clear at first, but the correct spelling is Kaefer (Käfer).
(06 Jul 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.