Introduction
It was 1984, more than half my life ago, when I first began to research my family history. I was helping my mother write and edit a history of our then-250-year-old church congregation, which began as a German Reformed church.

Part 1
Linking Your Family Tree to German-Speaking Nations
Chapter 1
Your German-Speaking Heritage

It didn't take long for Germans to become part of the ethnic mix in North America. A single German man, Dr. Johannes Fleischer, accompanied the original Jamestown, Virginia colonists. A year later, in 1608, five unnamed German glassmakers and three carpenters stepped off the ship Mary and Margaret to join the first permanent English settlement in what is today the United States. While the carpenters were brought to construct homes and the glassmakers likely worked their skill at making window panes, there's an irony that these professions both could be thought of as part of the most revered of all German industries—beer-making (just think kegs and mugs!).