Secrets

Grandma never talked about her family.  She would mention her brothers from time to time--I knew they were John, Thomas, Andrew and Harry.  Her mother, Mary Elizabeth Diamond was a Protestant, born in England, who converted to Catholicism when she married her father, Andrew Riley.  James Riley, her Grandfather, fought in the Civil War, and her uncle, Tom Riley, was a member of the NYPD.  That is all I really knew when I began to research the family.

My great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Riley, died in August 1943.  She had a stroke on the 5th Avenue trolley, and was taken to Kings County Hospital.  Grandma wanted to transfer her Mother to a private hospital , saying that 'my Mother worked hard all her life; she had nothing, and now she's dying in a public hospital."  It was sad, and Grandma, being a good Catholic, probably felt guilt that her Mother died on the way home from a visit with her.  

But I can only speculate if there was a deeper layer to Grandma's emotion.  Mary Elizabeth Riley's grandfather, Henry Hignell, died in the Joint County Lunatic Asylum in 1892--it was in Abergavenny, Wales.  The Diamond family had emigrated to New York in 1881.  Henry's sister, Mary Hignell, was literate--she signed the parish register at her brother's wedding, so I presume she wrote the family in New York when her brother died.  It probably became a source of shame, guilty and sorrow that a loved one died in a pauper's hospital.  I'll never know for certain, unless I unearth a cache of family letters discussing this subject.

I felt such pity for Henry Hignell, as well as for the Sisters, Sarah and Mary, who had to make the decision to take him to the workhouse.  Did his daughter, Mary Jane Diamond, ever feel guilty that she had not insisted her Father come to America with them?  Perhaps he was too hard for her to manage, along with her daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and her son, Charlie.  John Diamond may not have been thrilled with supporting another adult.  If I were a novelist, I could speculate until the cows came home, but as a genealogist ( amateur) I want to stick to the facts.

Family Tree

I wonder who coined the phrase " family tree' because it does not seem to apply to the Hignell/Collins branch of the family.  A tree has distinct, individual branches--but I would not describe either the Hignell or the Collins's of Newport, Wales as distinct.  If anything, they were more like garden ivy than a tree, spreading branches all over the garden, and crowding out other plants.

My Great Great Great Grandparents were Henry Hignell and Mary Ann Collins.  One of the witnesses at their wedding was William Hignell.  According to the Welsh censuses of 1841, 51, 61, etc. William's wife was named Sarah.  Their daughter was born about 1842.  When I checked freebmd.co.uk for a marriage record, it just so happened that William Hignell married Sarah Collins.  In the 1841 census, their is a Susan Collins living with them who is noted to be William's sister in law.  

Since I found Mary Ann Collins's baptismal record at Goldcliff, and she does not have sisters named Susan or Sarah, I presume they were cousins.  All the same, it's surprising how closely related the two families were.  I'm a little surprised that Henry's brother John didn't also marry a Collins, but I think he preferred the Prosser ladies, even if Wife no. 2 was 11 years older than he.

On a side note, I found Henry and Mary Hignell, brother and sister, in the 1880 Monmouthshire directory.  She is described as "Sextoness" a job she held for over 20 years.  Just love the phrase 'sextoness'.