Locust Grove Orange Virginia United States
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Germanna is a German settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717.
Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood had encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony.
The name Germanna, selected Spotswood, reflects both the German immigrants who have sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British Queen, Anne, who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna.
Though she was to die only months after the Germans arrived, her name continues to be a part of the area.
The Germanna Colonies consist primarily of the First Colony of forty-two persons from the Siegerland area in Germany, brought to Virginia to work for Spotswood in 1714, and the Second Colony of twenty families from the Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg area of Germany brought in 1717, but also include other German families who join the first two colonies at later dates.
Although many Germanna families later migrate southward and westward from Piedmont Virginia, genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarry for generations, producing a rich genealogical heritage.
The site of the first settlement is located in present-day Orange County along the banks of the Rapidan River, with subsequent settlements of Germans being established on sites in present-day Culpeper and Spotsylvania counties.
Many Germanna families play roles in important events in early American history such as the American Revolution and migration west to Kentucky and beyond.
Spotswood had bought eighty-five thousand acres (three hundred and forty square kilometers) in Spotsylvania County, of which the Germanna tract was the first, while he was Lieutenant Governor and actual executive head of the Virginia government.
In this capacity, between 1710 and 1722, he has carried out his famous Blue Ridge expedition and promoted many reforms and improvements.
He had established a colony of German immigrants on the Germanna tract in 1714, partly for frontier defense but mainly to operate his newly developed ironworks.
Germanna is the seat of Spotsylvania County from 1720.