2021 Honor Roll of Mothers

Sunday, May 9th is Mother’s Day, and the Germanna Foundation wants to take the time to honor and remember our mothers and foremothers. This above is a video of the names of mothers whom our supporters wanted to honor. The full list of names can also be found here:

Germanna Honor Roll of Mothers

Did you know that Mother’s Day was founded by a Germanna descendant?

Anna Jarvis, the Germanna Descendant who Founded Mother’s Day

Anna Jarvis devoted years to gaining national recognition for a day to honor mothers, as a fulfillment of a dream held by her own mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis.

Her mother’s Kemper ancestor, Johannes Kemper, came to Virginia from Germany in 1714 as one of the original Germanna colonists whom Lt. Governor Spotswood settled at Fort Germanna on the frontier. Kemper married Alice Catherine (Ailsey) Otterbach, a fellow 1714 immigrant from the Siegerland, soon after their arrival in Virginia.

Fort Germanna was located in what is now the Locus Grove, Virginia, area and the Foundation has an active archaeology program to find the remains of this historically important colonial fort.

Pioneering women in North America have been around for centuries. Over 400 years ago, in 1619, more than 100 women were brought to Jamestown as a way of bringing stability to Virginia and ensuring the first permanent English settlement would grow and flourish.

Less than 100 years later, Virginia saw two new settlements with the arrivals of the first and second colonies from Germany in 1714 and 1717. Unlike Jamestown, the groups were made of men, women, and children: families that had agreed to make the arduous trek overseas to begin life in a new world. Many women made the voyage with their husbands and children: some even gave birth while en route to Virginia.

This Mother’s Day, we honor the pioneering women in your life and remember the legacy of your foremothers and the impact they made not only in your family history, but our nation’s history.