Through my mother, I descend from the Higgins family of Essex County, Ontario, Canada. I feel a special connection to this family, perhaps because the Irish side seems to run pretty strong in me, with my pale, freckled skin, blue eyes and light-coloured hair. My mother always told me that my great-grandfather was a first-generation Irish immigrant, but as I’ve worked on the family tree, I’ve discovered that the story is far more complicated than that.
If you’re part of the Higgins family of Essex County, Ontario, join me as I explore their story, their Irish origins, their lives in Essex County and a possible connection to the Vikings.
George Higgins
According to WikiTree, George Higgins, my second-great-grandfather, is the first documented member of the Higgins family to settle in Essex County, Ontario. However, Ancestry and FamilySearch tell a different story.
My research on Ancestry and FamilySearch lists George as the son of Michael Higgins. Ancestry notes that Michael was born in September 1806 in Berry’s Lane, Cork, Ireland, and died on November 11, 1887, in Sandwich East, Ontario, Canada. It’s not exactly clear when Michael immigrated to Canada. A photo on FamilySearch of the Maidstone Cross, which contains his name as well as those of other Irish immigrants, suggests that he came over during the Irish Famine from 1845 to 1852.
There isn’t much information about George Higgins. According to WikiTree, he was born in 1840 in Ontario. Both Ancestry and FamilySearch disagree about where in Ontario he was born. Ancestry states that George was born in Sandwich East, Ontario, Canada, while FamilySearch proposes that he was born in Saint Catharines, Lincoln, Upper Canada, British Colonial America. Both Ancestry and FamilySearch list his death as October 20, 1882.
Both Ancestry, FamilySearch and WikiTree agree that he was married to Mary Halford. They had four children, but only Josephine Higgins and Abraham Joseph Higgins reached adulthood.
Abraham Higgins
Abraham Higgins was George Higgins’ second child and my great-grandfather. He was born on November 23, 1875, in Maidstone, Essex County, Ontario. He married Mary Zoe Renaud, a descendant of some of the original French Canadian settlers in Detroit, including Pierre Meloche, and the founding families of New France.
According to FamilySearch, they had 10 children: George Higgins, Mary Catherine Higgins, Mary Ellen Higgins, Daniel Higgins, Abraham Joseph Higgins, Joseph Michael Higgins, Mary Higgins, Margaret Higgins, Francis Joseph Higgins and Bernard Alphonse Higgins.
Abraham was a working-class man. He spent his career working as a motor man on the SWA, which travelled from Tecumseh to Amherstburg.
Abraham died in 1950 in Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario. He was 75. His wife, Mary Zoe, had died in 1935 at the age of 56.
Mary Catherine Higgins
Mary Catherine Higgins was my grandmother. She was born on December 28, 1908, in Tecumseh, Essex County, Ontario. Catherine was raised speaking French with her mother and English with her father until about the age of eight or nine, when the Higgins family left Tecumseh and moved to Amherstburg. After that, she lost the French language and became an Anglophone.
When Catherine was 26, her mother died, and she ended up raising the rest of her siblings. At 34, she married Walter Grondin, and they started their own family. They had six children: Walter Grondin Jr., Gregory Grondin, Gerald Grondin, Martha Grondin, Mary Grondin and Jane Grondin. Martha is my mother.
Mary Catherine died on March 24, 1983, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the 1918 Pandemic, she caught Spanish influenza and was left with heart problems as a result. According to my aunt, Mary Catherine had stopped taking her heart medication because it began affecting her memory, and she died six months later. I would have just been a year old when she died, so I never knew her.
The Potential Connection to the Vikings
My branch of the Higgins family comes from Ireland; however, the name itself appears to have Norse origins. Higgins is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Ó hUiginn, meaning “descendant of Uiginn.” Uiginn was a byname meaning “Viking sea-rover,” derived from the Old Norse word víkingr.
Between 795 and 1169, Vikings launched a series of raids in Ireland. By the 840s, they began staying year-round, building fortified coastal camps called longphorts to store ships and loot. The Vikings set up ports in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, which became Ireland’s first large towns.
After generations of living together and intermarrying, a mixed Irish-Norse population emerged, and the Higgins were likely part of it.
Interestingly, the Higgins family were a prominent hereditary bardic family who served as poets, storytellers and historians to the O’Donnell lords of Tír Chonaill in Donegal. Their writings became an important part of Ireland’s medieval literary tradition.
My Connection to the Higgins Family
This is my relation to the Higgins family of Essex County:
- Michael Higgins (1806-1887) and Johanna Brady (1810-1887)
- George Higgins (Abt. 1840) and Mary Halford (Abt. 1840)
- Mary Catherine Higgins (1908 – 1983) and Walter Grondin (1910 – 1998)
- Martha Grondin (Born 1950) and Gary Willis (Born 1946) – my parents
Are you related to the Higgins family? Let me know in the comments.
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