The Germanna Foundation’s annual trip to Germany is an exceptional experience. The ancestral villages of the participants become the itinerary for each year’s trip. The next trip takes place 17-29 June 2019. One of the tour guides is a Germanna trustee, descendant, and expert on Germanna genealogy and the other is a German native who […]
Announcing Germanna’s Christmas Markets on the Rhine River Cruise, December 2019
Join your Germanna Foundation cousins on a cruise that takes you to 10 cities and 9 Christmas Markets in 4 countries from December 8-15, 2019. By going on this cruise, you help raise funds for the mission and work of the Germanna Foundation. The cruise will ALSO trace a long portion of the river path […]
Germany Trip 2018 Deadline
The time has come for those intending to travel to their ancestral villages in Germany in 2018 to send their deposits to reserve a place. Space is limited, and many have already sent deposits. The itinerary is tentative, and is completed only when tour leaders Barbara Price and E.K. Mello know the roster of travelers and which villages their ancestors emigrated […]
President Trump’s German Genealogy Tree
President Trump declared October 6, 2017 to be German-American Day and mentioned that he had a German grandfather. Here is his genealogy tree showing his German and Scottish ancestors back to the early 1800s: Trump Genealogy (pdf) His German side:
Germanna families referenced in book
We found extracts of references to Germanna families in Lothar Irle’s book, Siegerländer Persönlichkeiten Und Geschlecter-Lexikon: Hrsg. Aus Anlass Der 750-Jahr-Feier Der Stadt Siegen 1974. Siegen: Selbstverlag des Siegerländer Heimatvereins, 1974. “Johann Henrich H., *Anzhausen 27. 8. 1644, 1690 bis 1703 Konrektor und Pastor zu Siegen, [verheiratet] Siegen 3. 12. 1678 Anna Kath., T. v. Bgm. […]
Trustee Jörg Becker, 1955-2016
The Germanna Foundation announces with regret the death of trustee Jörg Becker of Siegen-Eisern, Germany on 25 July following a courageous battle with cancer. Hundreds of Germanna members knew Jörg from having enjoyed the walking tour he led each year of his ancestral village of Eisern on one of the Germany trips, or from his […]
New DAG Officers
The Germanna Foundation is proud to be a charter member of the Deutsch-Amerikanische Gesellschaft (DAG) Siegerland-Wittgenstein e.V., which cultivates mutual understanding and cultural exchange between Germans and Americans. They are famous for hosting an annual Thanksgiving dinner for Americans studying or working in the Siegerland-Wittgenstein area! This week, the new officers were elected. They are, […]
Germanna Archaeologist Dr. Eric Larsen to Speak at German-American Heritage Museum
Please join Museum and Germanna Foundation members, friends, and others for an interesting lecture concerning the history and archaeology of Germanna on Thursday, March 17th, at 6:30pm at the German-American Heritage Museum in Washington, DC. This lecture series is sponsored in part by Germanna Trustee Sven Eric Utsch, and Dr. Larsen’s position is underwritten by a […]
German Script Course Available
The Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, PA, is accepting applications for an intensive course at Moravian College on learning to read German script. Now in its 46th year and the longest-running course of its kind in the country, the course will run from June 1 through June 14, and is being taught by Dr. Paul Peucker, Lanie Yaswinski, […]
Travel to Germany in 2016
Plan to join the Germanna Foundation in 2016 to travel to our ancestral lands in Germany. Two trips are planned: one in June to the villages from which the Germanna colonies emigrated and the other in December on a river cruise. Click here for more details and fill out the form on this page to let us know […]
German ARD Video: 300 Jahre Siegerlander in Virginia
German media attended last year’s reunion and conference and produced a video. You can watch it at this link. 300 Jahre Siegerländer in Virginia: Aktuelle Stunde vom 30.08.2014 Die ersten Deutschen, die in den USA siedelten, kamen aus dem Siegerland. 1714 holte der damalige Gouverneur von Virginia einige hundert Siegener und Wittgensteiner nach Amerika und […]
2014 Germanna Foundation Reunion Featured in ARD Broadcast
The 2014 Reunion & Conference of the Germanna Foundation was featured in one of Germany’s largest Sunday broadcasts. Listen in here, and read along with the provided text (you can paste the link into Google Translate to get a decent translation of the transcript).
Germanna Greetings on the the 725th Anniversary of Eisern
Herrn Klaus Eckhardt Vorsitzender, Heimatverein Eisern In der Peeke 28 57080 Siegen Federal Republic of Germany Dear Herr Eckhardt: On behalf of The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, I bring greetings to you and the Heimatverein Eisern, and congratulate you for your work to commemorate the 725th Anniversary of Eisern. Just as […]
Germanna article and photos in GAA newsletter
Read the article about the Germanna Foundation and its trips to Germany in the Gazette newsletter of the Federation of German-American Clubs: Gazette Newsletter (Marz 2014) (.pdf) See Page 28 and 29: The GAA stays continually in contact with the descendants of the US-Immigrants of the Siegerland
Exhibit Opens in Siegen on German-Americans in US Congress
The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society organized a series of exhibits on the contributions of German-Americans to the history of the United States Congress. This 14-panel exhibit tells the story of two of the first three German Americans in the First Congress—Frederick and Peter Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania—along with […]
Germanna’s Trip to Germany—a Family Historian’s Dream
By Leslie Hall Fall 2011 Germanna Newsletter For any genealogist there can be nothing more exciting than actually seeing where one’s ancestors lived, to walk in their footsteps, and to imagine what their life must have been like. For me, the trip to Germany with my fellow Germanna travelers was all about that but so […]
Member of German Parliament Visits Germanna
Moving visit for German official BY CLINT SCHEMMER, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 2011 An Old World lawmaker says he’s intrigued by bits of the past he saw in the New World during a visit to Orange County this weekend. Volkmar Klein, a member of the German parliament, explored the area that emigrants from his district settled […]
