Person:Melchior Brumbach (1)

Melchior Brumbach was one of the Early Settlers of Germanna Colony

Immigration to Germanna Colony

Melchior Brumbach was among the first settlers listed to migrate to Germanna Colony in April 1714:

• Melchior Brumbach, was a bachelor when he came, age abt. 28.

As noted on FamilySearch.org in source for Melchoir Brumbach, Page 49 of Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia, 1714-1750 contains a correction regarding the parents of Melchoir Brumbach in the article by Dr. William Hinke, "The 1714 Colony of Germanna, Virginia" which appeared in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Vol. 40, pp. 317+).

The above book states:

"It had been assumed that Melchior Brumback was born at Muesen in 1695, the eldest son of Johann Georg and Anna Barbara (Wurmback) Brombach, and a half-brother of John Joseph Martin of the 1714 colony. It now appears that this was an erroneous identification. On Dec., 4, 1713 Casper Brumbach of Muesen asked relief from a fine of 68 Reichsthaler that had been levied on his brother, Melchior Brumbach, who had "wandered off (presumably without permission) to the island Carolina," the fine to be paid from Melchior's inheritance (Siegener Landesarchive, 11, No. 28a, vol.2, p. 149). Although I had known of this record for several years, since it was published in Lueck's "Eisen, Erz, und Abenteuer" (p. 31), I never realized until quite recently how much doubt it cast on the assumed parentage of the 1714 Melchior Brumback, for Johann Georg and Anna Barbara Brumbach had no son named Caspar. Another reference from the Siegener Landesarchi, received very recently, shows positively that Melchior of 1714 was not a son of Johann Georg and Anna Barbara, but of Johann Georg's brother Johannes (b. 1653), and his wife Anna Margareta Kemper, aunt of John Kemper of the 1714 colony. On July 2, 1714 (same reference, but p. 200v) Margareta, widow of Johannes Brumbach of Muesen petitioned for relief from a find of 7 1/2 Reichsthaler 3 1/2 Albus, levied on Melchior Brumbach of Muesen who had "gone to foreign parts" (ausserland). The correct parentage is further confirmed by investigationsof Herr Kurt Schutte of Wuppertal (a friend of Mr. Emil Flender) in the chruch-books of Muesen. Mr. Schutte, whose able research has made it possible to tract the Brombach family back ton 1546 and earlier, finds that although Johann Georg and his wife Anna Barbara Bromback had two sons named Melchior, both these children died young, the one born in 1695 dying in 1697, and the one born in 1707 dying in 1708."

1.   Holtzclaw, Benjamin Clark, and Virginia) Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia (Culpeper. Ancestry and descendants of the Nassau-Siegen immigrants to Virginia, 1714-1750. (Harrisonburg, Virginia or Staunton, Virginia, United States: McClure Printing Co., c1964)
   583 p. : ill., maps., 1964.