31.jpg (966×698) Finding poor female ancestors is tough. For starters, the parish registers seldom, if ever, wrote down the birth mother's maiden name. I was luck to find this one reference to my great great great Grand Aunt, Mary Elizabeth Hignell. Just 'Miss Hignell" without a first name, or profession.
I'd love to find a photograph of the Lady Sexton. Somehow, calling her 'sextoness' seems a bit disrespectful, as though she was an Anglican hoochie momma. Mary was a single woman, who had to work hard to support herself. I didn't see any sign that she asked for help from her more affluent brothers, William or John Hignell. Perhaps I feel drawn to her because I never married, and will have to make my own way in the world sooner or later.
But there's a risk of reading too much into old records. Mary Hignell might have been a very disagreeable woman--who just did not like men. Perhaps she was the type of old lady who frightened the neighborhood children 'behave, or I'll get Miss Hignell to fix you". I doubt it--if that was true, her Niece, Mary Jane, would not have named her oldest daughter "Mary Elizabeth". While I can't find a death record for Mary Jane Hignell's mother, Mary Ann Hignell, by the 1861 census, Mary Jane and Henry Hignell are living with Mary Hignell. I suppose she was a mother figure to her niece, and I do hope she wasn't like Pip's sister, in 'Great Expectations".
Today, my Mom had a slight accident--falling off while transferring from the commode. Somehow, I remained calm. It was as though I tapped into my inner Mary Hignell. If that was true, thank you, Great Aunt Mary--Mom and I both owe you.
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