Ellen (Dolly) Carolina Higgs (Ellen Caroline)

Ellen Gertrude Higgs (Dolly) with her son Peter Maartens 005 Ellen Gertrude Higgs with daughter Trudy and grandson Piet 007

Ellen, known as Dolly, was born on November 20th, 1907 in Prieska.  Dolly's father was James Higgs and her mother was Gertruida (Gerty) Catharina Du Plessis.  Her paternal grandparents were Willem (Oupa Rollie) Higgs and Elsje (Ouma Ellie) Carolina Liebenberg; her maternal grandparents were Hendrik Stephanus Du Plessis and Susanna Catharina Schoeman. She had two brothers and two sisters, named Willem, Jimmy, Stella  and Joyce.  She was the second oldest of the five children.  She died in Hopetown.

• General Notes

  33 miles from Prieska is a place called Higgs' Hope
  
  http://www.orangemsa.com/float-log.php
  "Oh! some more interesting news is that they stumbled about a place called Higg's Hope. This is just down river from Douglas and when they got there, they met a farmer who invited them to join them for a braai. When they told him their story he said 'O ja! Ek't van julle manne gehoor!' ANYWAY, the story around Higg's Hope is that old Mr Higgs settled there ages ago and some of the richest diamonds were found on this farm. The farmer who met the boys was this old Mr Higg's grandson."
  
  http://s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/www.northern-cape.gov.za/ContentPages/49734014.pdf
  First proclaimed diggings took place on Brakf ontein in 1925; it was called Higgs Hope, after the earlier f amily of Mr J J Higgs, the owner of the f arm. The area had a chequered history of exploration, with as many as 9 000 people living on Higgs Hope during an of ficial census of 1928. The last of the “old timers” lef t in April 1992. Shortly after that, diggers with modern eart h moving equipment moved in, and managed t o break the hard calcrete layer that kept the “old timers” f rom working the underlying diamondif erous gravel. In the mid 1990’s mining rights to Saxendrift/Brakf ont ein were acquired by Northern Cape Diamonds (Pty) Ltd, one of
  the later subsidiaries of Gem Diamonds (Pty) Ltd. I n May 2000 t he latter company was merged with Trans Hex Mining Ltd.

Details of Dolly's family with Abraham (Abe) Stephanus van Straaten Maartens