The Motherline

2016-03-10 12.52.29 I’m reading an article draft for a very clever and insightful friend, in which she writes about “the motherline” as the passing on of stories that teach us about ourselves, our communities and life. It is a beautiful word.

When my daughter was born, my mother’s sister embroidered a “Mother’s Tree” for her. It’s still lying in my work-in-progress-basket as it needs to be mounted. We haven’t found a good space for it, by my daughter has cleared an area on the wall in her bedroom – so the pressure is on to finish the job (after 10 years!).

(The photograph does not do the embroidery justice – but when it is ironed and mounted on green velvet, I’ll update the picture.)

My wonderful aunt has done an amazing amount of research, and with the beautiful embroidery came a folder with more information about each mother. It is fascinating that we have such a complete motherline, and I am so grateful that their stories are there to be passed on to my daughter – and if she ever has a daughter: to eventual granddaughters…

Thanks to Auntie L, and of course Mamma – my motherline!

My family tree

I recently discovered one of the many online websites for family history, and have spent some interesting evenings gathering information about who my ancestors were. This is just a list of names, though, and not half as interesting as all the stories that lie behind the names and dates. For many of the people in my family tree, we have quite a lot of information. I am looking forwards to gathering some of the stories.

For now, however: click here to see my family tree!