This book contains a short history of Germanna and Germantown, Virginia; the small band of miners and their families who founded them; and the circumstances of their travel from the Nassau-Siegen District in Germany. Specifically covered is the family of John Joseph Martin (Johann Jost Merten). He was born May 24, 1691 in Muesen, Nassau-Siegen, Germany, and emigrated from Germany in 1713 with the first Germanna colony of 1714; his ancestry goes back to the 1500s. Martin's descendants are covered at great length, and the major allied families of Ehresmann, Fischbach/Fishback, Heimbach, Knieling/Kneiling, Moore, Otterbach/Utterback, Richter/Rector, Stuell/Still, Turner, Wendling, and Zachmann are covered to at least three generations in the appendix. Two indexes provide easy access to the names of people and places found in the text.