Joseph was probably born in 1840 in Mexico, the only son of Francis 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, Stow Hill, Newport^a1,b1,c1 . They had four children.

• Francis born on 11 May, 1873 in Pontymister, Risca^b2. Married Emily Davies on 8 Jul, 1908^d1. Died on 2 Dec, 1916 in Chatham at the age of forty-three.
• Louisa★ born on 2 Aug, 1876 in Newtown, Mynyddyslwyn^b3. Married George Henry Chambers★ on 23 Dec, 1895^b4. Died on 3 Nov, 1913 at 8 Joseph Street, Elswick^b5 at the age of thirty-seven.
• Rosearia born on 28 Apr, 1878 in Newtown. Died on 11 Jun, 1964 in Cardiff, Glamorgan^e1 at the age of eighty-six.
• Helena born on 17 Jul, 1880 in Pontymister. Married Thomas James Peters on 11 Sep, 1901^b6. Died in the Jul-Sep quarter of 1973 in Bedwelty Registration District at the age of ninety-three.

Joseph died at the age of forty on 15 Jul, 1880 at North Risca Colliery, Mynyddyslwyn. His death was attributed to "explosion of gas in a coal pit". 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.^{b7,f1,g1,g2,g3,h1,h2,k1}

He was buried three days later at St. Mary's Church, Risca^m1,g4 He was survived by his wife Bridget.

Timeline

1840

Probably born around this time in Mexico.

1872

28 Oct

Married Bridget Dineen★ at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Stow Hill, Newport^a1,b1,c1.
Recorded as residing in Risca, Monmouthshire^a1,b1,c1.
Occupation recorded as coal miner^b1.

1873

11 May

Son, Francis Hemmings, born in Pontymister, Risca^b2.

19 Jun

Occupation recorded as labourer at coal pit^b2.

1876

2 Aug

Daughter, Louisa Hemmings★, born in Newtown, Mynyddyslwyn^b3.

1878

28 Apr

Daughter, Rosearia, born in Newtown.

1880

15 Jul

Died at the age of forty at North Risca Colliery, Mynyddyslwyn^{b7,f1,g1,g2,g3,h1,h2,k1}.
Recorded as living in Pontymister^m1,h1,g2.
Occupation recorded as labourer^{b7,g2,h1,h2,k1}.

18 Jul

Buried at St. Mary's Church, Risca^m1,g4.

before 1895

Occupation recorded as coal miner^b8.

1895

23 Dec

Occupation recorded as coal miner^b4.

1901

11 Sep

Occupation recorded as former coal miner.

1908

8 Jul

Occupation recorded as collier^d1.

Other Information

Other names and variations

• Joseph Ximenes
• Joseph Hemmings^{b8,b7,m1,b4,b6,d1,g1,f1,h2,h1,g2,k1}
• Joseph Emmings^b3
• Joseph Hemmins^b2
• Joseph Ximanes^a1
• Joseph Veinanes^c1
• Joseph Himenes^b1

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 Cranogwen Hibbins (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 Brenda Bell who is married to John Graham Bell, nephew of Jean Bell (daughter of Louisa Hemmings★’ eldest daughter Rebecca), she wrote:

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 was given weight when, on the last day of 1987, Jeff and I found the marriage of Joseph and Bridget at the Catholic Church in Newport and discovered that his name was recorded 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.