Introduction

Approximately 7,500,000 Germans have immigrated to this country over four centuries—more than any single group from the British Isles. Now millions of their descendants in the early twenty-first century are desirous of finding their German forebears.

Immigration and Settlement

The first German to arrive in British North America was Johannes Fleischer. He landed in Jamestown in 1607. The most recent German immigrant came to this country within the past month. That person's name is not known, but what is known—Germans have now been coming to the United States for over 400 years.