*[Ich habe fuenf Toechter.] (Nein, ich habe eins Tochter.)
In the last note we were talking about Neuenbuerg. From the Ortssippenbuch for Oberoewisheim and Neuenbuerg, there are the following names:
Blanckenbuehler Bender Blanck Christler Debelt/Debold/Debolt Diehl Finck/Fink Fischer Fleischmann Gerhard Hepp Hirsch Jaeger Kaefer Kappeler Kiefer Klar Krieger Lang Lederer Lepp/Lipp Mack Maier/Meier/Meyer Oestreicher (which means Austrian) Rauch/Rausch Reiser Ruecker Sauter Schad Schaible/Schaiblin/Scheiblin Schluechter Schneider Schoen Schueck Sieber Silber Thoma/Thomas Uhl Vogt/Voigt Weidmann Weingard Zimmermann
It sounds like there was a reunion of the Robinson River Folk. (A few, but only a few, of the names are not associated with the Second Colony.) When you dig into these names, most of them were residents of Oberoewisheim or Neuenbuerg later than 1717. Still, one is left with the feeling that this region was a hotbed of emigration to America. In the index, these places are mentioned:
America (more than 150 times and none of these were in 1717),
Bayern (Bavaria),
Bern,
Bonfeld,
Boennigheim,
Brackenheim,
Cleebronn,
Eppingen,
Falckenburg,
Gemmingen,
Hueffenhardt,
Jefferson USA,
Klings,
Langenbruecken,
Menzingen,
Mosbach,
Muehlbach,
Oberderdingen,
Odenheim,
Sulzfeld,
Unteroewisheim,
Werth bei Dinkelsbuehl (Dinkelsbuehl was close enough to the home of Andreas Garr to walk to and back in one day),
Zaberfeld,
Zaisenhausen.
In Gochsheim (a few miles SE of Neuenbuerg) we find these names in their Ortssippenbuch:
Becker Bender Berler Buehler Crueger/Krueger Fink Fischer Gebhard Hirsch Jaeger Kappel/Kepler/Keppel Kircher/Kirchner Koch Lang Lepp/Lipp Merkle Neudeck Nonnenmacher Ruecker Siber Sieber Schneider Schoen Uhl Vogt Weber Ziegler Zimmerman
All of these are suggesting that the area or region was distributed with many Germanna names. Many of these were from families who were distributed throughout the region. So anytime you speak to a German citizen in the fat triangle from Hueffenhardt to Neuenbuerg to Oetistheim, you are probably speaking to a cousin.
In Elsenz, a few miles NW of Eppingen, there was a Krieger family. Also, there was a Hans Georg Meier, Reformed, born about 1650 at Adelshofen. He died in 1706.
Every time I read the Ortssippenbuch for this region, I feel that I am close to the origins of many of the Germanna families. These Ortssipenbuch are fun to read, but the number of them that are available in the US is very limited. It would be my ambition to reprint these on CDs which would make them more widely available at a more economical price.
*[I have five daughters.] (No, I have one daughter.)
(26 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.