Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day, a day when we celebrate and thank our mothers for all they do for us.  For many mothers this special day has its own special traditions, from breakfast in bed to flowers to visits or phone calls from adult children.  Every family has its own way to celebrate the day.

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother's Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday".  The modern Mother's Day began in the United States, at the initiative of Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century.

For me this Mother's Day this year falls on the 7th anniversary of my mother's death, and she has been much in my thoughts in the lead up to today.

My mother, Joy Patricia Green (nee Pummeroy) was born 24 January 1942 in East Brighton, Victoria and died 8 May 2015 in Echuca, Victoria. 

Joy Pummeroy, age 11

A city girl, my mother 'went bush' in her twenties, taking up posts as a governess at outback properties in southern New South Wales, near the town of Wentworth.  This was where she met my father, Peter Green and where my sister and I were born.

My mother's mother, Gladys Daisy Pummeroy (nee Clark) is the only grandparent I can remember, and was another major influence on my life.  She was born 30 June 1906 in Brighton, Victoria where she lived her entire life and died 5 August 1995.

Gladys and Joy Pummeroy, January 1967

While I will not have the opportunity to celebrate Mother's Day with these two wonderful women, I will certainly take some time to reflect upon their lives and the stories they have given me, safely recorded in my family history.

#52Ancestors - Week 18 - Social

Finding out about the social lives of our ancestors can be immensely challenging.  While work and home often generated official records, leisure activities and social gatherings were less likely to be recorded in official documents.

While our ancestors' social lives are a challenge to uncover, there are resources available that can help you in your research.  Memberships of sporting teams, clubs and associations, church groups, societies and boards can provide valuable information.  For the wealthier class, social events were often reported in local newspapers, as were sporting results.  Newspapers can also provide context on the social activities available to our ancestors, even is they are not named in reports.

The following newspaper article reports on an amateur concert held in the town of West Bergholt, where some of my ancestors lived.  Chair J. T. Argent (John Thompson Argent) is one of my direct ancestors, and the pianiste of the evening, Miss Ada E, Argent was one of his daughters.

Another insight into the social lives of my forebears was in an article from the Essex Standard from Saturday 21 June 1884, reporting on a pigeon shooting match in which my Great Great Grandfather Walter Green took part.

So check out what is available to flesh out the lives of those we are researching.  The details of social lives provide so much more insight than simply dates and places - they bring our ancestors to life in so many ways.