From Kimberly Powell,
Your Guide to Genealogy.
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The hand that rocks the cradle rules the nation and its destiny. --South African proverb

Mother's Day is a holiday celebrated in many countries around the world, but not all nations celebrate on the same day. In the United States, Mother's Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Many other countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium also celebrate Mother's Day on the same day as the United States. England, however, celebrates Mother's Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and in Argentina it is the second Sunday in October. International Mother's Day is actually celebrated on May 11.

A Brief History of Mother's Day
The earliest celebration honoring mothers dates back to the annual spring festival of ancient Greece dedicated to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. The Greeks would pay tribute with honey-cakes and fine drinks and flowers at dawn. Much like our current Mother's Day tradition of breakfast in bed! Early Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary. Later, in England, an ecclesiastical order expanded the holiday to include all mothers, and decreed it as Mothering Sunday. Servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers.

When the first English colonists settled in America they didn't really have time for many celebrations. The tradition of Mothering Sunday was discontinued until 1872 when Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), the author of the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, organized a day for mothers dedicated to peace.

In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She wrote hundreds of letters to legislators and prominent businessmen on both state and national levels asking them to create a special day to honor mothers. On May 10, 1908, the third anniversary of the death of Anna's mother, the minister of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virgina (the church her mother had attended) gave a special Mother's day sermon honoring Mrs. Jarvis' memory. Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. In 1914, Anna's hard work finally paid off when President Woodrow Wilson made the official announcement proclaiming the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.

More about the history of Mother's Day...

Tracing Your Maternal Ancestry
What better way to honor your mother than by discovering her heritage.

How to Learn Her Maiden Name
Discovering the maiden name of a female ancestor is often difficult, but can lead to a whole new branch of your family tree! Try some of these ideas to help you with your search.

Invisible Women Ancestors
Try these special strategies for uncovering hard to find information about the female ancestors in your family tree.

How to Interview Your Mother
Getting your Mom to share her stories isn't always easy. Follow these step-by-step ideas for a successful family history interview!

Her Story - Uncovering Women's Lives
Discover the lives of your female ancestors by using letters, diaries, postcards, photographs, newspapers and other sources to place them in historical and social context.

Famous Mothers
While all of our mothers deserve to be famous, check out these sites for interesting biographies on a wide variety of well-known women.

Famous Ancestors
Fun and fascinating family trees including royalty, nobility, presidents, famous historical figures, famous women, Greek and Roman gods, and a variety of fictional characters from books and television.

Notable Women Ancestors
A huge database of biographies of notable women, offering both historical and genealogical information, as well as an occasional amusing anecdote.

National Women's Hall of Fame
Read biographies and life stories of over 200 historically distinguished female Americans.