Ginnie, I agree. And remember, the traffic goes in both directions and it is equally likely that some who landed in Virginia went to Pennsylvania, and then to "the Valley--or simply met up in the Valley. You are also right, IMO, about the people who left Germany being above the peasant class. For example, we know Jacob Holtzclaw was a teacher. I don't know that it would be right to call the peasants "serfs" but darned near to it. Regardless, I agree that class would not have the means or even the knowledge of going to America. And yes, these people did communicate back and forth. That much is abundantly evident from the records that do survive in terms of correspondence and other records. (FInding a German preacher for both colonies, getting the organ for the Hebron Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, for example.) I have two good examples of both of these situations, though are in two different centuries. (1) For YEARS I was stumped on the origins of one Claud Vallott "aka Champagne" who mysteriously shows up out of nowhere in Middlesex County, VA. I had always thought that meant he was from Champagne, France but was never sure. If you've done French genealogy you know the "dit" names are maddening. So, one day a few years ago I posted a query about this to a fairly knowledgable and national list and VOILA! Two people (both expert researchers) wrote back with TONS of published material on this man, who had come over with Lord Carteret to New Jersey in 1665 as a high ranking member of his household staff. When things got tought for Carteret in New Jersey in 1679, Claud found it convenient to land on the Rappahannock River in Middlesex County, where he then married. This is what I mean about the traffic going in both directions. The lady who really had the most information said she was quite familiar with this man, because she had studied so many NJ families and was used to the traffic going from Virginia to New Jersey. And oh, yes--he really was from the Province of Champagne, which is spelled out like diamonds in the sky in the New Jersey records. (2) Now, for some Germans in the 1800s. One of my mother's line comes from the same Freudenburg that some of the Germanna colonists came from, though much later. We are fortunate to have many, many letters written back and forth from there and the US that give a lot of reasons why they left (economic & political reasons, mainly) in the first place, and how others had either already come, or were planning to come, over. So, correspondence is nothing to be surprised about. So, even though these are different groups at different times, human nature does not change much if at all over the millenia. Craig On Sep 2, 2011, at 6:49 PM, Virginia Nuta wrote: > Suzanne's right about the two Virginia colonies referred to as "Germanna," > but let me just add that as far as the 1717 Germanna group goes, they had > intended to land in PA, and it is believed that there were three other ships > leaving at the same time which did land in Pennsylvania. > > Thus, it is possible that their friends and relatives arrived in PA and some > did then travel south to VA and joined the group.