John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 2401
We are starting another century of Notes and let’s look at what we might expect to see. First, I really do not know what the notes will contain though I have one mini-series in mind. This will involve looking at a lot of church records from Germany. To some extent, we will fill in details of the ancestors of some of our Germanna ancestors. To those who have no Germanna ancestors, perhaps the exercise will illustrate what can be expected in German research.
The Germanna citizens are rather well defined, and the majority of them have known origins in Germany. What defines a Germanna immigrant is where he lived in America for at least some of the time. The Germanna citizens lived in the area of Virginia that is to the east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains separate the Shenandoah Valley on the west from the Piedmont immediately on the east of the mountains and the Tidewater areas which adjoin the ocean. The tidewater area receives its name from the fact that the ocean tides influence the levels in the rivers. This effect extends into Virginia for many miles. At the point where the Piedmont begins, the land starts rising in elevation and the fall of the rivers becomes very noticeable. These falls prevent the ocean tides from affecting the levels above the falls. Germanna, a
geographical
location, is in the Piedmont. This is where a group of forty-odd Germans was settled by Lt. Gov. Spotswood in 1714.
Spotswood liked these Germans. They did their duties without giving him any trouble. To populate a large tract of land to the west of Germanna, Spotswood abetted a ship captain in highjacking about eighty more Germans who arrived in late 1717 or early 1718. Later, friends and relatives of all these early Germans (both the 1714 and 1717 groups) augmented the initial groups. And finally, some Germans found that the physical area was a nice place to live. The first two groups of Germans arrived by ship directly to Virginia. Nearly all of the later ones arrived by Philadelphia. Some of these went to Virginia immediately but others lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Maryland for a short period of time. There were interactions and migrations of people from the Germanna area to the Shenandoah Valley.
Even though the fundamental area for Germanna people was in the areas which became Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, and Rappahannock Counties, we see that there were connections to other colonies both north and south of Virginia. And because many of the subjects discussed here would pertain to people who are not Germanna people, we show a certain liberality in our definition of what a Germanna colonist is; however, this list is not a site for locating random Germans. Because the origins of many of Germanna citizens are unknown and may have involved their living in other colonies, we do not want to offend anyone who might be able to help us. After all, cooperation is the name of the game.
(09 Nov 06)