*[Gehst du gerne einkaufen?]
When the First Colony settled into Fort Germanna, services in accordance in with the German Reformed Church would have been held. This was the church of all members of the Colony and the preacher was Rev. Haeger whose last position in Germany (before he retired) was the pastor of the Oberfischbach Reformed Church. As soon as the blockhouse was built in the fort, it was used as a meeting place for church services. We know from John Fontaine’s description of Germanna in 1715 that the Germans were very dedicated to their church. They held daily services in the evening and two services on Sunday. (It was probably a comfort to them to have familiar elements in such a strange land where they were isolated.)
At Oberfischbach, Rev. Haeger kept a record of his actions including baptisms, marriages, and deaths. It was accepted that this was the thing to do. Surely, at Germanna he would have kept similar records. The only limitation might have been a paper source, but I would guess that they could have solved that problem. When the First Colony left, the Reformed Church at Germanna essentially disappeared. It would have reappeared at Germantown with the same congregation and preacher. They would have kept or continued the same types of records that they kept at Germanna.
[There is a possibility that for the first few months that the First Colony was at Germantown that Rev. Haeger was not with them. As old as he was and with his health problems, he may have remained behind in Germanna until a home for him and a church were built at Germantown. Since the other people at Germanna were busy with building shelters for themselves and clearing land on which to grow food, it may have taken a little while to get things ready for Rev. Haeger. If he remained at Germanna, he might have served the Second Colony by holding services for them.]
Since the Church at Germanna was the first of that denomination in America (so we are told), there would have been no place or authority to send any records. After Rev. Haeger died in the 1730's, the lay members would probably have continued to use the Record Book to record baptisms, marriages, and deaths, the items which were usually recorded. They could perform baptisms and bury the dead, and though they could not perform marriages, they could have recorded the information. So what happened to these records?
*[Do you like shopping?] (Literally: Do you gladly go shopping?)
(14 Mar 07)
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.