Germanna Foundation's 2018 Historical & Genealogical Conference
This is the Germanna Foundation's annual one-day conference with attendees from all over the country who are in town for the four-day 61st annual reunion of Germanna descendants (if you would like to attend that entire event, see: http://germanna.org/conference-and-reunion/).
The Germanna Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring the Colonial Virginia frontier via the historic 1714 Fort Germanna and its German colonists and their descendants. It is located at the Fort Germanna Visitor Center on Germanna Highway (Route 3) in Locust Grove, VA.
This one-day historical conference with a full schedule of informative lectures takes place the Germanna Community College Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper, VA on Saturday, July 14 starting at 8:30 am. Have kids or grandkids ages 6-12? Register them for the Kids Colonial Camp at the Fort Germanna Visitor Center while you attend the conference.
Between conference sessions, browse and shop the many vendor booths at the Vendor Hall. Interested in having a booth at the conference? Call us at 540-423-1700 or click Contact on GERMANNA.org.
Coffee and donuts start the day and a box lunch is included in the conference fee. Enjoy meeting people interested in history and geneaology from around the local area as well as from across the country.
Conference Sessions:
Journey to the Land of Lincoln: Germanna Settlers in Illinois
Presented by Ashley Abruzzo, Historian, Germanna Foundation Membership Development Manager
As Illinois celebrates its bicentennial, Illinois native Ashley Abruzzo will present on the various Germanna families who settled there. With assistance from Germanna descendants, she has collected family histories and images to narrate the lives of these settlers. Where in Illinois did they live? Did any serve in the military? What were their occupations? Did they rub elbows with any famous politicians? All that and more.
Germanna Short Stories
Presented by John Blankenbaker, Geneaologist and Historian
Through a series of short stories, our Germanna people are presented in novel ways. Still we will see that they are much like the people you know today. They weren’t always angels and model citizens and they came from varied backgrounds. Some of the stories have humorous elements while some have their tragic moments. An entertaining and educational presentation.
Interpreting DNA Test Results
Presented by Glenn Cress, DNA Expert
Your DNA test results includes the names of others (who have tested) who match with your DNA. These names may include close relatives as well as distant cousins. Vendors provide only estimates of the actual relationships. The main focus of this presentation is to review some of the techniques/tools that can be applied to help analyze/interpret your DNA test results for y-DNA, mt-DNA, and at-DNA.
Blackbeard’s Last Battle
Presented by Kevin Duffus, Research Historian
The notorious pirate Blackbeard stands among the best-known figures of early colonial American history, yet no one still knows who he really was. To this day, his identity, his origins, and his motivations for committing acts of piracy remain in contention. Did he hail from England, Jamaica, or the Carolinas? Was his surname Teach, or Thatch, or something else entirely? Was he an undistinguished common sailor suddenly thrust into command of a pirate ship? Was he a former Royal Navy sailor and an aristocratic, Anglican slave-owning planter who inexplicably turned Jacobite and pirate? Or was he a mariner on a salvage mission lured to piracy by a mob of looters, and who later became a pawn in an attempted political coup in proprietary North Carolina? These conflicting interpretations have provoked hostile debate. At stake are the credibilities of monolithic institutions and museums, the reputations of researchers and authors, the financial stakes of publishers, and the future of a popular historical narrative. History carved in stone is never easily disconfirmed, especially when history’s icons have been sculpted and burnished by centuries of myth and folklore. For more than 45 years, award-winning research historian Kevin Duffus has followed the wake of the notorious pirate’s journey through history. Along the way he has discovered significant clues and pivotal waypoints in the Blackbeard records that point to a startling conclusion—one that many scholars do not want the public to know.
Area Native Americans
Presented by Dr. Carole Nash, Associate Professor at James Madison University
Learn about Native Americans of the Germanna settlement area from one of our Germanna cousins, Madison County native and Carpenter descendant Dr. Carole L. Nash of James Madison University. Dr. Nash is well known in the Virginia archaeological community and has spent her career studying the Native Americans of western Virginia.
