GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (399)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 07:05:18 -0400

The three hundred and ninety-ninth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

Any one group of German immigrants often came from the same village or
region. Therefore, if you know where some of the members came from, a search
in the same area will often find other members of the group. The First
Germanna Colony illustrates this very well as they all came from a tight
circle around Siegen. This was an unusual case though as they were recruited
and the effort of the recruiter (Johann Justus Albrecht) was concentrated on
Siegen.

The origins of the Blankenbaker and Willheit families had been known for
some time when Lineages, Inc., a professional genealogical research firm,
started a search for other members of the Second Colony. They observed that
the villages of the two families above were not very far apart. Based on the
thought that others might have come from nearby villages, they searched
through the church records (as available on microfilm) in nearby villages.
They found some information on about forty families, not all members of the
Second Colony but known to be immigrants to Virginia at some time.

In the process, they have basically proved that Rev. Stoever was in error
when the said the Second Colony came from the Alsace, Palatinate, and
adjacent places. No one has been found in the Virginia Germans who came from
the Alsace. Only a very small number came from the Palatinate. Because of
the shifting and confused political structures, it is not easy to say
exactly where the people came from. Geographically it is somewhat easier.

The river that flows by the town of Heidelberg is the Neckar which runs to
the west at this point toward the Rhine River. A little bit to the east of
Heidelberg, the Neckar makes a turn as it comes from the south. The Neckar
region is defined as the area between the Rhine and the Neckar Rivers.
Though it is not strictly true, this same region is sometimes called the
Kraichgau. At the time, the political jurisdiction was very confusing, being
partly the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg, and a variety of smaller
political jurisdictions including some no larger than a village. Today, the
entire region is in the state of Baden-Württemberg and the smaller
principalities have disappeared.

Not all of the Second Colony members were found in this small area which is
only a few percent of the total German area. The Yagers came from the west
side of the Rhine and the Harnsbergers came from Switzerland. But allowing
for a few exceptions, it would seem safe to say the Second Colony members
came from the Kraichgau or, slightly more broadly, the Neckar regions.

Therefore, a search for the Barlow family ought to concentrate on this
region. There is no reason to believe that they are any different from the
typical Second Colony member. There are some problems in the search. First,
the spelling of the name is not known. Second, not all church records are
available from this region. Third, some families have very few appearances
in the church records. Judging by the number of records in Virginia, the
Barlows may be in this category.
John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/germhist.htm

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