A Mother's Love

In 1902 my Great Grandmother, Sarah Jane Taylor gave birth out of wedlock. Even in these early Edwardian days there was still a huge stigma against illegitimate children and their mothers. 

It is said in my family that Sarah Jane's mother, Isabella was ashamed. Ashamed, not in her daughter, but in herself that she had not noticed her daughter's pregnancy early on. Isabella regretted that she was not able to help and advise her through that time, as she was with her other daughters. 

Isabella was already raising her daughter Mary's son, Robert Money and when Sarah Jane's baby son was born, Isabella offered to raise and take care of him also. She nurtured and cherished him to adulthood, and when Isabella died in 1928, her grandson carried on living in her house. 

In these years, Sarah Jane went on to marry and have eight more children. 

A rare photograph of
Sarah Jane

Decades later, one of Sarah Jane's daughters fell into the same trouble as she had in her younger days. Natured very much like her own mother, Sarah Jane said she would raise and take care of her grandchild.

This lineage is my direct female line, and all my life I have felt such strong maternal feelings from this side of my family.