The Hitt Surname I have a list of 25 households in Germany where the surname is Hitt. I did write to one of these who lives in Berlin but he knew little about his familys ancestry. For reason for this preliminary exploratory work is that the origin of the Germanna Hitts is obscure. B. C. Holtzclaw thought they came from Nassau-Siegen, perhaps because the balance of the First Colony did come from there. He could find no Hitts in this region but he did find Heide/Heite families here. So he assumed, without proof, that the German name of the Virginia Hitts was Heide/Heite At the Germanna Seminar last summer I talked about the origins of the Germanna Tanner family. I showed that the emigration history could be complex. In particular, even though the Tanner family did not arrive in Virginia until 1720, they were the first (known) Germanna family to leave Germany having left in 1709. My thought is that the Germanna Hitt family could really be a Hitt family and not a Heide/Heite family. Perhaps they left also in 1709 and spent a few years in Ireland or England as many of the 1709 Germans did. Many of these early Germans did not want to live in Ireland or England but wanted to go to the New World. Perhaps a Hitt family was in London in 1713 looking for a way to get to America. They may have encountered the Nassau-Siegen people and joined the group. So the question is: Is the original name of the Germanna Hitts actually Hitt or Heide or even another name.? It would seem to me that a DNA study of known Germanna Hitts (in the male line) could be compared to the DNA of German Hitts and Heide/Heite. This might help answer the question of the original name of the Germanna Hitts. My list of the 25 Hitt households in Germany is a few years old being taken from a telephone book. However, the majority of the addresses are probably still valid (I did write to one and received an answer.) If anyone wishes to pursue this question, I will give them my list. -- John.Blankenbaker@comcast.net