I am saddened to report the death of our friend, Dr. Frank Turnage, former Executive Director of the Germanna Foundation and serving as Trustee Emeritus at the time of his death. Frank, whose roots go back to colonial North Carolina and Virginia, had a long and distinguished career in the Virginia Community College System and […]
John O. Marsh, Jr. (1926-2019), Germanna Descendant
The Germanna family recently lost a proud descendant of Germanna’s Second Colony Wieland / Wayland family, John O. “Jack” Marsh, Jr., one of the most powerful but least known men in Washington in the 1970s and 1980s. He was an Army officer, lawyer, Virginia congressman, adviser to Presidents and the longest-serving Secretary of the Army. […]
Germanna Foundation eyes the future
The Germanna Foundation’s new Executive Director was recently featured in Culpeper Star Exponent article written by Clint Schemmer: Germanna Foundation eyes the future The Germanna Foundation is no longer just a genealogy organization. The Virginia-based nonprofit has broadened its mission beyond representing the descendants of the Germans who settled the colony’s early 18th-century frontier. The […]
Germanna in Memoriam
The Germanna Foundation extends condolences to family members of people in our Germanna community who passed away recently: Horst Schneider The board received with regret news of the death of Trustee Emeritus Horst Schneider of Siegen Kaan-Marienbborn on 3 October 2018. Horst succeeded his good friend Heinz Prinz on the Germanna board when Heinz died […]
The Germanna Foundation names Timothy E. Sutphin Executive Director
The Germanna Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Timothy E. Sutphin as its new Executive Director. Tim joins the foundation with over 25 years of experience in the public history profession with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. “The chance to lead the Germanna Foundation in a new and exciting direction […]
Hilary Duff discovers she is a Spotswood descendant
On a recent episode of the TLC TV series, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, actress/singer Hilary Duff found out that her 7x great-grandfather was early colonial Virginia Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood! Here at Germanna, we knew about this early on but were unable to say anything as we did not know what material they’d […]
Anna Jarvis, the Germanna Descendant who Founded Mother’s Day
Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, devoted years to gaining national recognition for a day to honor mothers, as a fulfillment of a dream held by her own mother—Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis. Ann Marie was born in Culpeper in 1832, the daughter of Josiah Washington Reeves and Nancy Kemper Reeves, whose Kemper ancestor Johannes […]
Who Were Germanna’s Founders?
The inspiring history of the Germanna colonies lay nearly forgotten for 200 years. Threads of awareness emerge in the historical writing of professor William J. Hinke c. 1920, in an inquiry to President Calvin Coolidge from Müsen, Germany, in 1927 about descendants of the 1714 emigrants from that village, in the Reformed Church’s commemoration of […]
Germanna Descendant in NSA’s Hall of Honor
Parker Hitt, a 3rd great-grandson of Peter Hitt and Elizabeth Otterbach, through Germanna Colonists Harmon Hitt and wife Mary Weaver, is in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Hall of Honor for being a pioneer in cryptology. Here is the write-up about him on NSA’s website: NSA/CSS Hall of Honor The Hall of Honor was created in […]
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:
In Memorium: William “Bill” Fishback Sr.
Bill Fishback descends from the Germanna colonists Johannes and Agnes (Haeger) Fischbach [Fishback]; the Rev. Henrich & Anna Catharina (Friesenhagen) Haeger; Johan Jost & Maria Cathrina (Otterbach) Mertin [Martin]. He is a descendant of the “Fleetwood” Fishbacks (a colonial home in Fauquier County visited by attendees of the annual Germanna Foundation conference and reunion). No one in […]
Germanna’s new Membership Development Manager
The Germanna Foundation is pleased to announce its recent hire of Ashley Abruzzo, who joins the Foundation team as its Membership Development Manager. Within this role, Ashley will focus on fundraising and membership relations, community outreach, and event planning. “As a Germanna descendant, I am very excited to be working for the Germanna Foundation and […]
Willie Martin, 1928-2016
Willie Martin, past president of the Germanna Foundation, passed away on August 23rd. A direct descendant of John Joseph Martin through his maternal Clarke family of Stevensburg in Culpeper County, Willie was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Germanna Foundation on November 5, 1957 (Willie’s father, T.I. Martin, mayor of Culpeper, was elected to […]
Jump into our gene pool!
August is a great time to jump into our gene pool! FamilyTreeDNA is running a sale on their Family Finder test kit for $69.00 (regularly $99.00) “All of our DNA tests are designed to deliver superior results with the most advanced technology to tackle any genetic genealogy challenge. Plus, our new parental phasing tool allows […]
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 […]
Thanks Virginia Commonwealth University
We treated Dr. Bernard Means and his VCU archaeology field school students to a pizza party picnic at the Fort Germanna/Enchanted Castle excavation site on Thursday, July 28th – the final day of VCU’s field work at Germanna this summer. Our seasonal staff, under the direction of Germanna’s archaeologist, Eric Larsen, Ph.D., and this season’s […]
I Dig Germanna Archaeology Workshop
Craig Wolford (center right) and Gil Kenner (center left) received their certificates of completion, trowels, and “I Dig Germanna” T-shirts for successfully completing our first I Dig Germanna Archaeology Workshop 18-20 July from Dr. Eric Larsen, Germanna staff archaeologist (l) and Germanna COO Steve Hein (r). Working under the supervision of Dr. Eric Larsen and […]
How I Came to Germanna
by Richard Roy Martin – I came to Germanna by adoption and by biology. You see, my adoptive father, Roy Martin, was a descendant of John Joseph Martin, and my biological father, Herman Meyer, was a descendant of Peter Hitt. If my story is not unusual enough, then it becomes more unusual. According to family […]
Meet our archaeology field season staff
We’re pleased to welcome aboard these seasonal archaeology staff members to help Germanna’s archaeologist, Eric Larsen, Ph.D., with new excavation work at the Fort Germanna and Enchanted Castle site, and to supervise the VCU field school students later in the summer. Thank you to all of our members and supporters for making this possible. […]
Memorial Day
Over this Memorial Day 2016 weekend, please take time to remember those who have fallen while serving our nation in uniform. Say a silent prayer for their families. Participate in a community remembrance service. Share their stories so that others will understand what freedom, patriotism and service really mean.
Editorial: Unearthing stories of Germanna’s past
Thousands of people pass the place every week, yet far too few know of its international significance. Some remarkable moments in American history happened at the Germanna historic site, on State Route 3 in Orange County. Some of those stories are told, briefly, by exhibits in the Germanna Foundation’s Brawdus Martin Visitor Center where the […]
Germanna Foundation gets $250,000 boost
By Amber Galaviz, Orange County Review With a recent $250,000 donation, the Germanna Foundation hopes to begin the construction of a new archaeology research laboratory and artifact storage building near the Brawdus Martin Germanna Visitor Center in Locust Grove. The donation comes from Dr. Michael D. Frost, of Kansas City, MO. as a continuation of his […]
Actor Neil Patrick Harris Learns of His Germanna Roots on PBS
We were excited to watch the Germanna Foundation’s nation-wide television debut of the “The Pioneers” episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots. In “The Pioneers” episode, five-time Emmy Award winner Neil Patrick Harris was surprised to learn that one of his ancestors – Gertrud Stuell, an ancestor many Germanna descendants have in common with […]
PBS Series “Finding Your Roots” Episode to Feature Germanna Descendant
This week’s episode of the PBS Series Finding Your Roots, the “Pioneers,” will reveal some interesting German ancestry information about one of the episode’s stars. The show airs for the first time on Tuesday evening, Feb 23rd. Watch it, and then watch here for more… You can also check out the Germanna Facebook page. For […]
Merry Christmas from Germanna
My friend Werner Hoffman-Gassner of Eisern is probably known to you through his heraldic artwork that hangs with gratitude in the Germanna Visitor Center. This week he sent me a video of a very old German carol that made me think of the first Christmas when the Lutheran colonists at Germanna first celebrated Christmas with the […]
