As an example of what might be freely reprinted with regards to the German ancestry of our people, take the case of Michael Holt, 1717 immigrant. Volume 5 of the Before Germanna series has the information that Cerny and Zimmerman found for Michael Hold (and some other families). Jimmy L. Veal, a descendant of Michael Hold wanted a verification of the Before Germanna information. He hired a professional researcher in Germany (Rut Bosler) without mentioning Before Germanna . He used some of the information that was found as the basis of an article in Beyond Germanna . In doing so, he said that the information could be freely used.
In particular, Mr. Veal wanted to know if there were any mentions of Hans Michael Hold, or his mother, Anna Brueckmann Hold Spaeth, or her husband Joh. Spaeth, in the church records after 1717. No records could be found which pleased Mr. Veal. What the researcher in Germany found generally confirmed the findings of Cerny and Zimmerman, but there were corrections to the spellings of names.
The earliest ancestor found was Jonas Hold, born 1601, who died 9 Apr 1663 in Stetten. He was mayor of Stetten am Heuchelberg. He and his wife Anna were the parents of eight children. The family lived in a very difficult time as The Thirty Years’ War raged from 1618 to 1648.
Frau Bosler reports one given name as Elisabeth, wife of (Old) Bernhard Brueckmann which differs from other reports. The major differences which Frau Bosler found are the spellings of the names Brueckmann and Naegelin which had been given in the Before Germanna reports as Brickmann (or Brickhmann) and Haegelin.
The consensus of several people, whom I respect very highly, is that the Germanna Foundation/Association ought to issue a comprehensive report of the findings from the records in Germany/Switzerland/Austria. It is recommended that the work be verified by experienced people who can read the records. This should be a continuing effort which is constantly being revised. If the findings were issued on a CD, the production costs are low enough to make the reissue of a revised CD reasonable. The storage capacity of the CD is enough that reproductions of the records and photographs of the villages today could be included. Such a CD should not be limited to Second Colony people but should also include the First Colony and later comers. The emphasis should be on the German records, not on the history of the families in America.
Such reports could be made now for the Blankenbaker, Fleshman, Schlucter, Thomas, Scheible, Utz, Volck, and Hold families though the stories are not complete by any means. Also by now, the history of the Gemmingen families (Clore, Weaver, and Smith) and the Sulzfeld families (Zimmerman, Uhl, Kapler) could be added.
(22 Sep 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.