Since 1956, the Germanna Foundation has published hundreds of years of genealogy across thousands of pages in twenty volumes of research and is in the process of expanding our database of over 100,000 known descendants. Now, modern science has developed the new tool of DNA testing to expand beyond the limits of genealogy, as Dr. Spencer Wells of the National Geographic Genographic Project explains in this video:
You and your family’s participation in the Germanna DNA Project will coordinate research collected by distant cousins, confirm relationships based on written records, complement our archaeology project, and advance our understanding of the deep ancestry of the Germanna colonists.
As this project develops, it is quite possible that the Germanna DNA Project could prove to be the largest and most illuminating of the DNA projects of interrelated families in Europe and America: we presently have 621 participants in the project.
More information about the project, the DNA tests available, and what you may learn about your own ancestors is available through the website of our testing partner Family Tree DNA. (Family Tree DNA is also the testing partner for National Geographic’s Genographic Project.)
If you’ve done DNA testing through another source, you may still share your results with the Germanna DNA Project, and we encourage you to do so! Go to the Family Tree DNA Germanna Project site, and scroll down to the Third Party section for information about transferring DNA test information from 3rd parties.
Share your discoveries through the Germanna DNA Project, and help us discover more about our Germanna family saga.