This is the fifth message in two days that has not gone through.  I am resending this. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Suzanne Matson <holtzclaw.research@yahoo.com> To: Germanna Colonies <GERMANNA_COLONIES@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 7:00:00 PM Subject: Miners and mining John Blankenbaker asked for proof that members of the First Colony were miners.  None has been presented.  So I would propose that they were not miners.  What has been presented is the presence of iron furnaces, etc in or near the home villages of the First Colony.  These are two different issues. Yes, there was mining in the Siegen area--but does that automatically mean that everyone from that area was a miner?  I don't think so. As an example, both of my grandfathers were farmers..  My father was a business owner and my mother a homemaker--note--neither were farmers.  Yes, they were familiar with farming but they were not farmers.  I, as a granddaughter, am also familiar with farming since I spent much of my childhood rambling around my grandfathers' farms.  I am not a farmer but I am familiar with farming.  So everyone in the First Colony could probably have claimed some familiarity with mining but that did not make them miners. I would like to know if, in that time, membership in a guild meant that you actually were working in the mines or did it confer some type of social status--or both.  That might help disprove or prove some of the assumptions made about our ancestors. Another example--the Ironmongers of London have long ceased to have anything to do with ironwork because the work moved outside London proper where they had no control.  Today, the Ironmongers still exist and is a patrimonial group with limited membership (about 230, I think).  Today, they manage their assets-financial and real estate.  No mention is made of their various careers and jobs.  Assuming that at some point in the distant past, these members had a ironmonger ancestor, it does not necessarily follow that today they would still be working with iron. Suzanne Collins Matson