According to Johni Cerny and Gary J. Zimmrman, authors of Before Germanna, there have been few unanswered questions about the First Germanna Colony in the New World. However, at least in 1990 when this book first came out, surprising little was know about the Second Germanna Colony. This second colony faced hardships and misfortune from the beginning.
First, their ship was held fore weeks in London while their captain sat in prison. Then, their captain by passed their intended port in Pennsylvania, and made for Virginia, where the group was sold into indentured servitude to “pay for their passage.” In addition, their belongings were confiscated.
It was the Governor Alexander Spotswood, who recruited the First Germanna because of their metal working skills who also paid for and indentured the Second Germanna. “While Spotswood may have recognized the injustice done these immigrants, he profited from the situation to extract eight years of indentured labor from them. They were not released until 1725, a year longer than the customary seven. Spotswood sued nineteen of them in 1723 and 1724 to force them into their extended service.”
Ultimately, the Second colony ended up settled near the First. However, the exact location is not know, and few inter-marriages took place between the two, at least during the early years. Previous works regarding the Second colony were presumptive and “hopeful” but lacked definitive source materials. Using German parish records has allowed the authors of this book to reconstruct a more definitive view of the Second Germanna Colony of 1717.
“Each of the Second Colony families is treated separately in Before Germanna, a series of monographs discussing individual and groups of Second Colony families.” The first book in the series, the introduction from which this brief outline has come from, is entitled Before Germanna: The Ancestry of the Clore, Kaifer and Thomas Families.
The historical information alone is interesting. Not to mention, there are many who are sure to find their German ancestry tied in some way to this previously under appreciated early German colony.
Contents
The Second Germanna Colony of Virginia
The Ancestry of Hans Michael Klaar of Gemmingen, Baden
The Origins and Parentage of Wolff Michael Kafer
The Origins and Ancestry of Johannes Thoma
Revised Constituency of the Second Germanna Colony
Index
Copies of Before Germanna: The Ancestry of the Clore, Kaifer and Thomas Families available at Family Roots Publishing; Price: $5.83.