What You Always Wanted To Know About the Second Germanna Colony But Were Afraid to Ask!
by John Blankenbaker
Terms like First Colony and Second Colony are bandied about within Germanna and it is not always clear who we might be talking about. John Blankenbaker will be sharing his considerable insights into the constituents of the Second Germanna Colony and he will be answering many questions related to that topic.
What are some of the questions John will answer in his presentation on the Second Germanna Colony at the July 17 Germanna Conference and Reunion?
Who Were the Members of the Second Germanna Colony? Can we name the individuals? What are the sources that can be used to determine the facts?
What is the definition of the Second Germanna Colony?
Is there an agreed upon time frame for members of the Second Germanna Colony? How might we determine such a time frame?
When the members of the Second Germanna Colony arrived in Virginia did they already know the members of the First Germanna Colony?
What role did Alexander Spotswood play in getting the Second Germanna Colony to Virginia?
What does the evidence reveal in terms of exactly how many members were in the Second Germanna Colony? What sources help in determining this answer?
How long did the Second Germanna Colony live at Fort Germanna with the First Colony members?
Where did the Second Germanna Colony members go when they left Fort Germanna?
What skills did the Second Colony members bring with them from Germany?
How long did it take before the Second Colony members were speaking English?
Do we have any evidence of the type of interactions the Second Colony members had with the English settlers? With the Indians? What can we surmise about such interactions?
What activities did the Second Colony members engage in once they left Fort Germanna?
What intermarriages were there between First Colony and Second Colony settlers? Ancestors?
What are the significant contributions of Second Colony members?
Get the answers to these questions and more by attending John’s presentation on July 17 at the Germanna Conference and Reunion.
To register, click here.
Who is John Blankenbaker?
For the few who might not know of John, here you go: John Blankenbaker is the unofficial historian of Germanna. John retired from being a computer engineer in 1985 (he is recognized as having produced the first commercially available personal computer) and since then he has been deeply involved in the study of the Germanna Colonies. For fifteen years he published Beyond Germanna, a newsletter/journal devoted to distributing information about the Germanna people. He also wrote 2,500 Notes that were distributed and archived on Rootsweb.
He has given many talks for Germanna audiences and he has joined in making CDs of the history of the people in the Robinson River Valley. He has published four books: The Culpeper Classes, "Hebron" Baptismal Register, "Hebron" Communion Lists (with Andreas Mielke), and The Second Germanna Colony and Other Pioneers (number 18 in the Germanna Record series) and he has also published two CDs, Beyond Germanna and Germanna Villages, a Photographic Essay.
John and his wife Eleanor have made trips on their own to Germany and Austria where they visited ancestral homes and relatives. More information about John and his work is available on these websites: www.germanna.com, www.kenbak-1.net, and www.pa-palam.org. John has relatives in the First Colony, many in the Second Colony, and some in the later comers. His grandfather, John Henry Blankenbaker was descended only from German immigrants, most of whom came in 1717.