Joseph Ximenes (1840–1880)
Joseph was probably born in 1840 here, the only known son of Francisco Ximenes★. His mother is not known. He is Ian's great great grandfather.
He married Bridget Dineen (1842–1898)★, a house servant, on 28 Oct, 1872 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Stow Hill, Newport, Monmouthshire, Walesa1,b1,c1 . They had four children:–
- Francis baptised on 15 Jun, 1873 at the Church of St Anthony of Padua and St Clare in Risca, Monmouthshire, Walesd1. Married Emily Davies on 8 Jul, 1908 at St. Sannan's Church in Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Walese1. Died on 2 Dec, 1916 in Chatham in Kent, England at the age of forty-three.
- Louisa★ born on 2 Aug, 1876 in Newtown in Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire, Walesb2. Married George Chambers★ on 23 Dec, 1895 at The Register Office in Newport, Monmouthshire, Walesb3. Died in childbirth on 3 Nov, 1913 at 8 Joseph Street in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Englandb4 at the age of thirty-seven.
- Rosearia born on 28 Apr, 1878 in Newtown. Died on 11 Jun, 1964 in Cardiff in Glamorgan, Walesf1 at the age of eighty-six.
- Helena baptised on 25 Jul, 1880 at the Church of St Anthony of Padua and St Clare in Risca, Monmouthshire, Walesd2. Married Thomas James Peters on 11 Sep, 1901 at the Register Office in Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Walesb5. Died in the Jul-Sep quarter of 1973 in the registration district of Bedwelty in Monmouthshire, Wales at the age of ninety-three.
Joseph died at the age of forty on 15 Jul, 1880 at North Risca Colliery in Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire, Walesb6,g1,h1,h2,h3,k1,k2,m1. His death was attributed to "explosion of gas in a coal pit".b6,g1,h1,h2,h3,k1,k2,m1. The explosion, in which 120 men and boys perished, occurred around 1.30 a.m. on July 15, 1880, affecting all areas of the mine. Joseph was part of a group of miners who descended into the pit between 10 and 10.30 p.m. the previous night and had been working for about three hours when the disaster struck. His body, discovered on the roadway of No. 2 level, showed signs of scorching around the head and face, and was covered in dust, making identification initially challenging. Moses Thomas eventually identified Joseph, rather than his widow Bridget. Following the recovery and identification of the bodies, Joseph's remains were immediately placed in a coffin and taken home for burial.
He was buried three days later at St. Mary's Church in Risca, Monmouthshire, Walesp1,h4 He was survived by his wife Bridget.
Timeline
- 1840
- Probably born around this time here.
- 1872
- 28 Oct
- Married Bridget Dineen★ at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Stow Hill, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales.a1,b1,c1
Recorded as residing in Risca, Monmouthshire, Wales.a1,b1,c1
Occupation recorded as coal miner.b1
- 1873
- 11 May
- Son, Francis Hemmings (1873–1916), born in Pontymister, Risca, Monmouthshire, Wales.b7
- 19 Jun
- Occupation recorded as labourer at coal pit.b7
- 1876
- 2 Aug
- Daughter, Louisa Hemmings (1876–1913)★, born in Newtown, Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire, Wales.b2
- 1878
- 28 Apr
- Daughter, Rosearia Hemmings (1878–1964), born in Newtown.
- 1880
- 15 Jul
- Died at the age of forty at North Risca Colliery, Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire, Wales. The informant was his wife Bridget.b6,g1,h1,h2,h3,k1,k2,m1
Recorded as living in Pontymister.p1,k1,h2
Occupation recorded as labourer.b6,h2,k1,k2,m1 - 18 Jul
- Buried at St. Mary's Church, Risca, Monmouthshire, Wales.p1,h4
- before 1895
- Occupation recorded as coal miner.b8
- 1895
- 23 Dec
- Occupation recorded as coal miner.b3
- 1901
- 11 Sep
- Occupation recorded as coal miner.
- 1908
- 8 Jul
- Occupation recorded as collier.e1
Facts
estimated 1840
Mexico
(not known)
15 Jul 1880
North Risca Colliery, Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire, Wales
18 Jul 1880
St. Mary's Church, Risca, Monmouthshire, Wales
Research Notes
Was Joseph from Mexico? #
The Oral and Documentary Evidence
There has long been an oral tradition within our extended family that an ancestor originated from South America or Mexico. In his 1986 research diary Jeff wrote a summary of oral information he had gathered about the Hemmings family, including this statement:
Louisa’s mother or grandmother had a child by a Spaniard or Mexican.
The next year, on 20 Dec 1987, Jeff wrote:
I also spoke to Alice Farmer (born Peters) who said that Joseph Hemmings came from South America and that he married someone by the name Duneal who was cut off from her family for marrying such a dark skinned foreigner. She remembers an uncle Joseph whom she met in the early 1930s when she was 18. He looked just like a Mexican.
The following day, Jeff recorded a conversation with Jane , the daughter of Joseph’s son Francis Hemmings:
My grandfather Joseph came from Portugal. I myself am dark skinned.
In 2001, in a conversation I had on Ancestry with wife of one of Louisa Hemmings★’ descendants she stated:
This [information about a South America connection] has me intrigued as my father in law John Joseph [Bell] always said he had mexican blood but was unable to give further details. My sister in-law said she was told there was Shosoni [Shoshone] heritage.
This oral information provides intriguing hints about Joseph’s origins. It is supported by the discovery Jeff and I made on the last day of 1987, when we found that Joseph and Bridget’s marriage at the Catholic Church in Newport recorded his name as Joseph Ximanes.
The name is probably a variant spelling by the priest of Ximenes (he wrote the entire entry in Latin so every name is altered from its original form). This is a name of Spanish origin, with other variants being Jimenez, Himenez and Himenes. Joseph was recorded in the civil registration version of the marriage entry as Himenes. At some point he anglicised his name as Hemmings and all records of him and his family thereafter are known as Hemmings.
Beyond this, though, we have no other evidence for the origin of Joseph Ximenes. We cannot find him on any passenger lists, crew lists, census returns, immigrant records, naturalization or army records. There is not trace of him at all in England or Wales before his marriage in 1872. We have no idea when he arrived in Wales, whether it was as a child or an adult, or whether he came alone or with family.
I suspect that he and Bridget were introduced via St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Stow Hill in Newport. The evidence speaks to Bridget being a devout Catholic, coming from an Irish immigrant family. She and her siblings were baptized there and she married her two previous husbands at the church. The church was known at the time to provide support for immigrants of the Catholic faith and possibly Joseph was one of those the church was helping.
The DNA Evidence
My DNA origins show evidence of a South American and Indigenous connections. Ancestry reports a 3% match for the “Indigenous Americas—Mexico” area which extends from the southwestern United States down to the border of Guatemala. It also includes Cuba. I also have a 1% match for Spain and a 1% match for Portugal.
It is intriguing that the Indigenous percentage is higher than both the Spanish and Portugese percentages. This suggests that Joseph came from a mixed Spanish/Indigenous family, a common situation in the Mexican region.
I have a number of DNA matches that share an Indigenous connection with two main clusters: the Nuevo Leon region of Mexico and Puerto Rico. These two groups seem distinct and the Puerto Rico DNA connections appear to have been native to Puerto Rico for many generations. The predominant family names in that branch are de Jesus, Lopez and Cruz.
The Mexican connections do include people with the surname Ximenes but this is a fairly common name in the region. Other connected surnames in this region inclide Garcia and Martinez.
Most of our Mexican/Indigenous DNA tracing is being perfomed in this tree on Ancestry.
