Bridget Mary Josephine Higham nee Sexton

Thank you.  I have a lot of letters belong to my grandmother and need to work through them for any clues about her life.   When I was in my early teens my parents took me on holiday to Southern Ireland, we visited Ennistymon and found people that knew my grandmother’s family but at that age I didn’t make notes.   We also found a relative in Limerick, I’ve found a letter from her so that is another lead to follow to find my Irish relatives.   My grandmother while living in London joined the suffragette movement, in asking for votes but was careful not to break the law as she had two daughters dependant upon her.  Unfortunately she died a few years before I was born but my parents and siblings said she was generous, a beautiful needlewomsn, and maternal grandfather, a journalist said she was clever.  I suppose being widowed so young was the reason she never returned to see her family in Ireland.   I was named after her because my parents I said ?I had missed so much not knowing her.  I just thought you might like to know about her life after she married and left her home country.  

Dear Bridget:

 

Thanks for your post and the information that you have included.  I can ask a few local people in the Ennistymon area if you wish about the family.  If you leave this with me, I will make enquiries and get back to you via this message board thread.

 

Let me know if you are happy for me to do this.

 

All the best,

 

Jane

Thank you.

Hi Bridget:

 

I have a contact that I will speak with and get back to you in the next short while.

 

All the best,

 

Jane

I thought we might be linked - I have Catherine 'Kitty' Sexton b 1822 from Mullagh who married Michael O'Brien in Licheen, Kilfenora (Ennistymon registry area) about 1844. Looking up I see that sexton is a very common name in Clare on 1901.

Nice story that there was no road and she rode side-saddle to settle with Micheal next to Lake Licheen. Her sister married his brother or cousin.

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/1901census/name_inde…

 

Kevin Murphy

i am trying to trace my grandmother’s family in Ireland, I found her marriage certificate she and my grandfather James William Higham, a soldier who was based at the Curragh Camp, they were married in the chapel there.  There were posted to Gibraltar, we’re my mother was born before my Grandfather was posted back to England before being sent to Africa to fight in the Boer War.

Like you Kevein I’ve come to realise how common the name Sexton is Ireland.   While I have the marriage, death certificates and cards for the funeral of my grandmother Bridget Mary Josephine Higham nee Sexton I am still looking to find amongst correspondence for actual birthday.  I never knew her, but was told I had missed a fiesty, educated person who would always try to help others.  She joined the Sufrage movement in London, by this time she was a widow.

I know there was a relative living in Limerick in the 1950s we visited them while on holiday in Ireland, she had married a policeman and they had a son, who went into the church and a daughter a little younger than me, Sarah her mother called Sadie, If I can find my address book from them then hopefully I will find them.

Looking at the English Census of 1901 and 1911, plus the death certificate my grandmother was born in 1878/79.   In 1907 when my grandfather died my grandmother was 29 according to my late mother.    

 

Bridget Fowkes.

 

 

 

 

 

Shanew147 posted that John Sexton father of my grandmother Bridget Mary Josephine Higham, nee Sexton, was a car driver according the birth certificate of a Bridget Sexton born to a John Sexton1874, all the information I have shows her birth in 1878,  on her marriage certificate dated 24 November 1879 her father is listed as a labourer.  Unfortunately the one document I don’t have is her birth certificate.   Her marriage certificate is listed under NASS records for Curragh Camp.

Bridget Fowkes

 

 

Hi Bridget:

 

I will follow up with the local contact and let you know.  They have not gotten back to me as yet.

 

All the best,

 

Jane

 

 

 

 

I don’t think I’m far off with grandmother’s birthdate for although I never knew her apparently she’d had a good education, plus marrying a British soldier all her details would be required by the Regiment. In the U.K. census online, it is her handwriting, I have letters written by her. She has put in her age and her daughter’s. My mother thought she was Convent educated in Dublin, my mother thought my grandmother had an uncle who was a priest and that he got her into the Convent. She was a a beautiful seamstress, I have photos of my mother and aunt in dresses made by their mother. Tracing my Irish ancestors is difficult, if only I made notes when we visited Ireland when I was a teenager, but it’s easy to be wise in hindsight. Thank you for helping me. Bridget Fowkes