Germanna Foundation

Preserving the historic heritage of the original settlers of the Fort Germanna Colonies in Virginia

Facebooktwitterlinkedinyoutubeinstagram
  • About
    • About
    • Welcome
    • History
    • Mission
    • People
      • Board of Trustees
      • Germanna Foundation Council of Advisors
      • Germanna Foundation Staff
      • Committees
    • Strategic Plan
    • Jobs and Volunteer Opportunities
  • Events
  • Membership
  • Donate
    • Friends of Germanna
    • Planned Giving
  • Database
  • Store
    • Germanna Records
    • Germanna Zazzle Store
    • Memorial Garden Pavers Order Form
    • Germanna DNA Project
  • Contact
    • Join Mailing List
  • Home
  • Conference
  • Travel
  • Visit
    • Library
    • Germanna Memorial Garden
    • Jobs and Volunteer Opportunities
  • Trails
    • Blue Trail
    • Orange Trail
    • Red Trail
    • Chimney and Witness Trail
    • 1957 Dedication
    • Preserving Our Land
    • Trail Blog
  • Salubria
    • Salubria History
    • Hours/Directions
    • Reserve Salubria for a Special Event or Photo Shoot
    • Salubria Blog
  • Genealogy
    • Database of Germanna Descendants
    • List of Original Germanna Settlers and their Villages
    • Germanna Records
    • Travel to Germany with Germanna
    • Germanna DNA Project
    • Famous Germanna People
    • The Revolutionary War and Germanna
    • Conference and Reunion
    • Articles
    • Links
  • Articles
    • Germanna Blog
    • 5 Min with Germanna Videos
    • Germanna In the News
    • Events
    • History
    • Announcements
    • Siegen Forest Trails
    • Reunion
    • Genealogy
    • Salubria
    • Germany
    • Conservation
    • Books
    • People
      • In Memorium
  • Resources
    • Germanna Records
    • Library Book List
    • Photo Gallery
    • Newsletters
You are here: Home / About / Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to the Germanna Foundation’s presence on the internet!

Here you will learn of interesting new projects to preserve and communicate the history of Germanna and her people, which is a modest attempt to give you a glimpse into the joy we feel when we walk the grounds of our 18th Century forebears and share a meal with the descendants of those first Europeans on the Virginia frontier.

The Foundation holds 179 acres of the original tract of land settled by German families between 1714 and 1717 at the direction of Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood, and a circa 1756 manor house called Salubria, the most important plantation in the region and the home of Spotswood’s widow.

Why do we take care of Salubria?

Why do we preserve the forest that our ancestors once hunted in?

Why do we treasure the Rapidan River?

Why do we travel across the Atlantic to visit a small barn far from the major tourist attractions?

Why do we work to piece together bits of information to form the mosaics that are our genealogies?

I wonder if it is something deeply inscribed on our hearts that tells us that every individual is infinitely important, that every person who ever lived is part of a drama that has purpose and meaning.

And that our lives matter, too. Sometimes these insights are so important, that they can only be told on a scale that spans decades and centuries.

But sometimes words fail us. That is why we need a house. A forest. A river. A farm.

At its heart, that is what is very special about the Germanna Foundation.

For all our efforts to learn about who we are, few ever find the treasure that we have at the end of the rainbow.

For over half a century, descendants of the families who survived on the frontier of a continent have discovered the Germanna Foundation and found new meaning in understanding the perseverance of those families in nearly three centuries on American soil.

Can you imagine the courage of those men and women and what fortitude it must have taken to leave their safe and familiar world to become strangers in a strange land?

It must have taken a great leap of faith for those brave souls to step onto the gangplanks of those old wooden ships and then to watch the shores of Europe recede over the horizon, treasuring their last glimpse of home for a lifetime. Surely they were comforted by the Old Testament imagery of being led by God to a promised land.

I wonder if the little German settlements on the frontier had a special memorial service on the Fiftieth Anniversary, their first Jubilee, of landing in America.

Leviticus 25:10 would have given them a model: “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.”

The colonists’ deeds of daring and sacrifice need to be retold to the world as we move toward our sixth-fold Jubilee, a homecoming of sorts for those descendants who have lived in freedom for 300 years in America.

Help us with the means to do this. Your ideas, volunteer hours, and financial support help the Foundation to gather and channel all our work together for this momentous project.

Thanks for visiting with us!

Share this:

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Comments

  1. ED Wynes says

    April 3, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    Do any of the Germanna Foundation members have any history of the Rector family before they moved to the new world that they would be willing to share? I have a good amount of information on my line of the Rector Family From Virginia to California. Now I am interested in knowing something about their life in Germany. I have information going back 10 generations to a Johann Huttmann.
    My information is on my mothers side of our family. John Johannes and Ann Catherine Fishback

    Reply
  2. Ed Wynes says

    April 3, 2019 at 1:58 pm

    Do any of the members of the Germanna Foundation have information on the Rector family in Europe before they moved to the new world? If they do are they willing to share the information?
    My grandmother on my mothers side was a Rector and in doing some research in Ancestry I have found information on the family back 10 generations to Virginia.
    I would appreciate any information you could provide me,

    Reply

Your Comments Cancel reply

Join Germanna Mailing list

NEW GERMANNA RECORD!

Broyles Family book

The Broyles Family: The First Four Generations
by Cathi Clore Frost

watch on-demand!

Germanna Foundation’s Mission and Stewardship

The Germanna Foundation tells America’s story of liberty through the frontier experience of her settlers and descendants using archaeological, historical, and genealogical research and interpretation. We are stewards over these important properties and initiatives:

  • Fort Germanna Visitor Center campus which includes a Museum, Genealogy Library, the Hitt Archaeology Center, and the Germanna Memorial Garden
  • Siegen Forest – 170-acre Hiking and Nature Trails along the Rapidan river
  • 1714/1717 Fort Germanna Archaeology Site
  • Virginia Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood’s home “Enchanted Castle” Archaeology Site
  • 1757 Georgian-style Salubria Manor
  • 1800 Peter Hitt Farm
  • Publishing “The Germanna Record” genealogy/ history books
  • Maintaining a genealogy database with over 130,000 records of descendants of the Germanna colonists

Your donation helps support our mission:

Make a Donation

Become a member or renew your membership in the Germanna Foundation:

Membership

RECENT POSTS

  • Salubria in Spring: Our First Salubria Public Access Day of 2023!
  • 2023 Bluebell Walk with Germanna Foundation and Old Rag Master Naturalists
  • Lab Nights with Germanna Archaeology: Hitt Archaeology Center Open House
  • An Evening with Germanna Presents Founder’s Day Genealogy: The First and Second Germanna Colonists with Barbara Price and Cathi Clore Frost
  • Lab Night with Germanna Archaeology Presents: Buildings and Builders of Germanna
  • Join Germanna for the 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count!
  • Virtual Event: The German Diaspora: Looking at German Emigration Worldwide from the 9th Century to Today

Germanna in the Revolution

Download Icon for Genealogy Databases

Germanna Descendant

Germanna 101

Watch a video about the history of the Germanna Colonies in America.

germanna-family-1b

Become a member of the Germanna Foundation and get access to Germanna’s exclusive genealogy database, GermannaFamily.org, with thousands of names. Research your Germanna roots!

Become a Member

Make a Donation

Planned Giving

Remember the Germanna Foundation in your estate plans and in your will.

Germanna Foundation

The Germanna Foundation
MAILING: P.O. Box 279
LOCATION: 2062 Germanna Highway
Locust Grove, VA 22508-0279
Phone: 540-423-1700
Fax: 540-423-1747
Contact Us Page

Remember the Germanna Foundation in your Will and Estate Plans.

Fort Germanna Visitor Center, Museum & Library

2062 Germanna Highway (Route 3)
Locust Grove, VA 22508
(Next to the Germanna Community College campus)

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturdays, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Closed on Sundays

Out of town visitors are urged to call us at 540-423-1700 to confirm or to make special arrangements for groups.

Follow Us

Facebooktwitterlinkedinyoutubeinstagram

Hike Siegen Forest!

Behind the Fort Germanna Visitor Center is our 170-acre Siegen Forest nature and hiking trails along the Rapidan river. Trails are OPEN 7 days a week, during daylight hours. When visiting the trails, please practice “Leave no Trace” ethos. If you enjoy the trails, consider donating to the Germanna Foundation to help support their upkeep.

 

About

The Germanna Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring the Colonial Virginia frontier via the historic 1714 Fort Germanna and its German colonists and their descendants.

It conducts archaeological exploration and conservation, genealogical research and publishing, and historic preservation and interpretation.

The Foundation owns and maintains several historic sites and properties, such as Salubria Manor, that were part of or closely connected to the Germanna colonies, the town of Germanna, and the other early colonial Virginia settlements and towns in the Piedmont area of Virginia.

Copyright © 2023 The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia Inc. (The Germanna Foundation) | Website by CJKCREATIVE.COM