Happy Ancestral Mother's Day

L-R- Mary Ann Griffin, Mabelle Bulmer, Melinda Chatterson , Audrey Bulmer (child), 1898

Today is Mother's Day in Canada (tomorrow in Mexico) and this is a tribute to some forgotten mothers in my family. I am continuing to go through old photos from Mom and am trying to remember stories about ancestors that I barely paid attention to when I was younger. I would love to talk to Grandma or Mom for one afternoon to get some answers! The picture above shows a four generation picture with my grandmother as a child, her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I know next to nothing about the generations before my grandmother, Audrey.

This is what I have found out so far about my maternal line starting with dates I know for sure. Other dates are taken from Trees by Dan.

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Mother:

Mary Elizabeth Tolman (née Devins) b. May 5, 1932 (Toronto) d. April 22, 2013 (Tepic, Mexico)

Married April 4, 1953 to John David Tolman

Grandmother:

Mabelle Audrey Cecilia Devins (née Bulmer) b. May 10, 1896 (Toronto)  d. March 13, 1990 (Newmarket)

Married September 15, 1919 to Clifford John Devins 

Great-grandmother:

Mabelle Amelia Bulmer (née Chatterson) b. November 16, 1878 (Toronto) d. ??

Married April 8, 1895 to Charles Frederick Bulmer

Great-great grandmother:

Melinda Chatterson (née Griffin)* b. November 26, 1858 (Nottawasaga, Simcoe Co., Ontario) 

                                                      d. July 6, 1927 (Toronto)

Married November 30, 1877 to Stewart Armstrong Chatterson

Melinda Chatterson, "Aunt Minnie" later re-married a "Mr. Edwards and became Mrs. Edwards". This picture on the left is at her cottage on Toronto Island- 1905

Great-great-great grandmother: (updated June 12, 2021)

Mary Ann Griffin (née Nolan)- b. May 28, 1839 Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland. 

                                                  d. 1933 

She came to Canada in 1843 with her family, just ahead of the great Irish potato famine. 

Mary Ann Griffin had 12 children and Melinda* (Belinda Jane in some records) was her eldest. 

"Grandma Griffin" is written on the back of the picture 

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Mabelle Amelia Chatterson -1894

This is a photo of my great grandmother Bulmer when she was 16 years old. She was married at the age of 17 in 1895, and my grandmother Audrey was born 13 months later in 1896. Great uncle Fred Bulmer was born in 1897, and Great aunt Dorothy Bulmer (m. Eldon Gibson) was born on Audrey's 12th birthday, May 10, 1908. I received Great-grandmother Bulmer's bedroom suite when I was nine years old and still have it in our home. The bed is an old fashioned three quarter bed which is a size between a single and double bed. I have to order custom mattresses now. That is pretty much all I know about this lady! Her name is spelled 'Mabel' on the geneaology site but is spelled 'Mabelle' on the back of her pictures.

These old photos did not have names and dates written on the back. Grandma and Mom had added descriptions years later after most of these ladies had died. Perhaps it never occurred to them that they would be forgotten in time or that a great-great-great granddaughter would want to know more about their lives. Other cultures have oral traditions and remembrances of ancestors that we do not observe in western society. 

These ladies live on in me and my children and I honour their memories on this day. 

The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;

the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

Psalm 103:15-16