This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/1VB.2ACE/11353.1 Message Board Post: Well, hello! Try the variations of the spelling: Higney, Hegney, Heagney and Hageny. You'll find the name of the same people spelled differently in the different census returns and even by members of the family. My ggg grandfather Edward Hegney came to America from County Tyrone around the late 1830s, and your Mary may well be a relative. Edward was born in 1810 and was naturalized in Sandusky in March 1844. The naturalization papers spell his name as "Edward Higney". I know nothing definite of Edward's family, except for his wife and children. But there was another male Hegney in Erie County who might have been a younger brother or nephew. Took me a long time to find the family in one census, since whoever did the index had completely misread the last name! (Some indexers should be shot for the ridiculous misreadings they come up with.) My gg grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Hegney -- the family settled eventually on the Hegney spelling. Thus Mary could have been a family name, though it is hardly uncommon among Irish Catholics.