*[Der Fruehling kommt.]
I have spent most of the weekend at the combined meeting of the Pennsylvania German Heritage Festival and the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Palatines to America . In the course of that, I heard four talks by Henry Z. “Hank” Jones. That’s a lot of Hank Jones. Perhaps even more fun was to have dinner two evenings with him.
I may have learned more about one of our Germanna families. If it turns out as seems probable, we may find that one of our later Germanna families was one of the earliest Germanna families to leave Germany. The trip of this family took a very roundabout way route before they ended up in Virginia and not all of the details are known. First, though I want to research a little in a village in Germany before I report any details.
The question was asked if all of the members of the First Colony were naturalized. I think it would be safe to say, “No.” The records are very incomplete, so an authoritative answer is not possible. We know three members who were naturalized. These were Jacob Holtzclaw, John Huffman, and John Fishback, who were the first to be naturalized. They obtained their naturalization quite early in order to buy the 1800 acre Germantown tract. (Actually, one did not have to be naturalized to own property, but one was supposed to be naturalized in order to will property.) Of these three men, I am aware of the naturalization document for only one of the men, Jacob Holtzclaw. He took the trouble to file his naturalization papers in a courthouse where it was preserved.
Even though Jacob was living in Stafford County in 1722, he filed the document in the Spotsylvania Court House. It appears there in Deed Book A, Part I, (1722-1729) on page 165. The document is dated 11 July 1722, but it was not filed in the Court until 5 October 1725, when, upon the motion of Jacob Holtzclaw, the Naturalization was admitted to Record.
This particular naturalization (and also one to Nicholas Yager) was issued by Alexander Spotswood. The date is just before Spotswood left for the Indian conference in New York. Thus, the Holtzclaw and Yager naturalizations were among his last official acts as (Lt.) Governor. Some of the pertinent language is (to paraphrase it), “Jacob Holtzclaw is a native of Nassau-Siegen in Germany who has settled and inhabited for several years in the County of Stafford.”
This, in itself, is evidence that the First Colony moved to Stafford County (i.e., Germantown) quite early, probably about January of 1719 (NS), because several years before 1722 would push their departure back to the end of their work in mining and quarrying in December 1718.
*[Spring is coming.] (None too soon for me.)
(19 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.