FAMILY MATTERS

BUT…this Virginian John C. Couch is recorded as having been born in Germany! How could that be possible? Is that record erroneous? And he is ALSO noted to have been born in “Germany, or North Carolina.”

Do we just toss out Germany and look for a family like his in North Carolina (I did, but couldn’t find any).

Then - surprise! It turns out there was a colony of Germans in Virginia who were brought into the Commonwealthin the 1720s by then Governor Spotswood. He named it “Germanna” – and built it not far from the iron works he owned along the Shenandoah.

And there WAS a settler named Koch among the group in roughly the same time period.

BUT “Koch” has been Anglicized to “Cook” in almost every record, and while it is also possible that John adopted “Couch”

as a way of blending in with the Virginia Couches among whom he settled, this theory requires too much work.

Or does it?