My Lancastrian lady ancestors appear to have been a fiesty lot, with many of them having to endure personal problems at various times in their lives - much the same as some of us do today. I'll nominate my great grandmother, Elizabeth Ellen Pearson and her mother, my great great grandmother, Margaret Ellen Russell. Grandma Lizzie as she was known to my dad, was a formidable but kindly lady, who put her family before anything, including strikes at the mill. She'd refused to not go into work because she needed to feed her children, and thus made her self a bit of a target for those who chose to go on strike.  She appeared to have grown up under the guidance of her mother, and an only child. I has assumed that her father, George Hornby Pearson, had died soon after she was born, in 1874 in Burnley, Lancashire. It took me many years to discover this wasn't the case. Her father, George, born 1851 in Syke Side in Haslingden married Margaret Russell on Christmas Day in 1873 at United Methodist Free Church, Paradise Lane, Blackburn. At some point he disappeared from their lives. Margaret looked after Lizzie until Lizzie married Henry John Chew, and remained close to the family up to when Margaret died in 1930 in Blackburn - so much so, that my dad could remember carrying covered rice puddings down the back alleys to (Great) Grandma Russell's house when he was a small child. The women had remained close and devoted to each other. After much investigation, I found that this was because George had in fact, upped and left the family, eventually bigamously marrying another woman in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1883. In the mid 1880s when Lizzie and Margaret were in Blackburn, George returned to Burnley with his new wife, who gave birth to a son and half brother to Lizzie, James Pearson. He left in 1893 and went back to Fall River, dying there of pneumonia in 1897. I guess the inner strength of spirit was nurtured throughout their relationship right from the early days. Whether they ever knew what became of George Pearson, or whether they both went to their graves unaware of what happened, I'll never know. But I do know that in their respective roles of Mother, they were adored by their families. And rightly so. Happy Ancestral Mother's Day to them both! Regards, Sally ---------------------------------------- > Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:24:30 -0400 > From: lklein@mindspring.com > Subject: [LAN] Your Lancashire mother > > Good morning, everyone, and Happy Mother's Day! > > Today would be a good day for everyone to mention a Lancashire mother. Could be your own mother, your grandmother, great grandmother, or some other mother that lived in Lancashire. Perhaps you have a story to tell, a bit of data to share, or a query. > > There are an awful lot of subscribers to the Lancashire lists and you've all been very quiet lately. Let's hear from all of you!

My great grandmother, Eliza Gent, grew up in her father's shop on Railway Road in Adlington. Eliza was a milliner before her marriage. When she married, Wm Mayor, she ran the Millstone Pub in Anderton while her husband was breeding, training and showing his famous Millstone Bull Terriers. Wm died young and as a woman, Eliza wasn't allowed to keep the pub, so she bought a small store in Bolton and ran that until her death. Happy Mother's /Mothering Day to all!

My godmother was like a second mum to me. She was born in Southend on Sea in 1916 but raised in Manchester and shared many stories of life in wartime. Sadly she passed away 2 years ago at the age of 95 in Toronto and I miss her terribly. Anne in Hamilton, Ontario