Germanna For Beginners
by Marc Wheat
There are always questions about the basics of Germanna. For those who are not totally familiar with the history, it can be intimidating to hear unfamiliar terms tossed around without someone actually defining those terms. Marc Wheat, President of the Germanna Foundation Board of Trustees will be your answer man. Learn about the people, places, events and terminology that will enhance your appreciation for the history and genealogy related information connected with Germanna. What will you learn at this presentation?
Who named it Germanna?
Where does the name Germanna come from?
What role did Virginia colonial Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood play?
Who is Graffenried? Who is Albrecht? Who is Capt. Scott? Who is Capt. Tarbett? Who is Fontaine?
What does mining have to do with Germanna?
Where did the first Germanna immigrants come from?
What is Trupbach? What is a Palatine?
What does London, England have to do with Germanna?
Why are they called the First Germanna Colony? Where were they from?
What did Spotswood have to do with that group?
Where did the next group of Germanna immigrants come from?
Why are they called the Second Germanna Colony?
What did Spotswood have to do with that group?
Were there other Germanna immigrants after 1717? Who? Where? When?
What does the ship Oliver have to do with Germanna?
Where is the Mount Pony Settlement? What does that have to do with Germanna?
Where is Little Fork? What does that have to do with Germanna?
Where is Germantown? How many places were called Germantown in Virginia? What does that have to do with Germanna?
Where is the Robinson River Valley? What does that have to do with Germanna?
Where is the Hebron Lutheran Church? What does that have to do with Germanna?
What is Salubria?
How did Germanna come to own Salubria?
When was the Germanna Foundation established? By whom?
Why does the Germanna Foundation have two Boards? What do they do?
When was the Germanna Visitor Center built?
What are the plans for the Germanna Visitor Center?
What does Germanna Community College have to do with the Germanna Foundation?
Who are some noteworthy Germanna descendants?
What are some of the accomplishments of the Germanna Foundation?
What are some of the plans for the Germanna Foundation?
To get the answers to these questions and many more, just plan on attending Marc's presentation on July 17 at the 2010 Germanna Conference and Reunion.
TO REGISTER FOR THE 2010 CONFERENCE AND REUNION, JUST CLICK HERE
Who is Marc Wheat?
Marc is the 4th President of the Germanna Foundation since 1956, descending from Rev. Henry Haeger, Germanna's colonial pastor. He is also a Rector and Fishback descendant, which makes him related to just about any descendant of the 1714 Germanna Colonists.
Marc has spent his entire career in public service, mostly with an eye to strengthening American families and our culture. His first job in Washington was Senior Legislative Assistant to Congressman Dennis Hastert, where he led Congressman Hastert's drive to repeal the Social Security earnings limit (later the 7th pledge in the Contract With America). He is presently an attorney working at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which strives to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. Prior to his work at the SEC, Marc served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, & Human Resources. During his tenure there, he lectured at the European Parliament in Brussels; met with advisors to President Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan; and helped manually eradicate a coca field in Colombia. He learned a great deal about the world after joining the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Colin Powell six weeks after 9/11, where he served as Senior Advisor for Senate Affairs.
In the 1990's, Marc was Counsel to the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he worked principally on health care, bioethics, and bioterrorism; while Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy, he succeeded in the elimination of $8.1 billion of wasteful spending in May 1992, the largest such rescission since 1982. Marc's Porkbusters Coalition was the subject of Adventures in Porkland, a book by Washington Post reporter Brian Kelly and illustrated by political cartoonist Pat Oliphant. A discussion of his anti-trafficking work in Robert Goff's Finding Karishma: Modern-Day Slavery and the New Abolition Movement, and thanked in Francis Fukuyama's Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
Marc received his B.A. (majoring in Spanish) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987, and his Juris Doctor in the Corporate and Securities Specialty Track at George Mason University in Virginia. A member of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, Marc and his wife Marie (the former Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Office of the Peace Corps) raise their son and daughter in Arlington, Virginia.