Morgan-Knighton Kith 'n Kin

Feriba, Febby, Fereba, Phebby, Febeba... ? ? ?

James W. Morgan married Pheiba Crow 25 February, 1821, according to the marriage records of Jasper County, GA. Note the spelling.

I have been looking at numerous documents lately - census records, family group sheets, pension records, etc. - trying to track down every available piece of information on this couple. Everything I've looked at in the original documentation has the name of James' spouse spelled differently. In fact hardly any two documents spell it alike! And to add to the difficulties early 19th century script isn't always easy to decipher. It's no wonder there is so much confusion in online family trees about her actual name. However, I have a theory about this particular, if not uncommon (for genealogists, anyway) confusion.

I believe "Pheiba" could neither read nor write and therefore she couldn't tell anybody how to spell her name. The way she pronounced it must not have clarified matters either.

I came to this conclusion after discovering (thanks to another researcher) her Declaration of a Widow Pension (War of 1812). She made her mark when signing the document, 13 July, 1871. In this document alone, there are three opportunities to spell her name. At least two of them look like someone tried to correct the spelling, and the person who witnessed her signature makes it look like "Fetreba" - whether the "tr" is really there, or is a actually a "b" is hard to tell in the copy I have. I did observe that most of the documents pertaining to her attempts to obtain a widow's pension that are very clear copies, the people filling out her paperwork wrote her name as "Febeba".

So how many ways CAN you spell her name?

I think I'll just go with how the census enumerator of the Sockapatoy Beat of Coosa County, AL on the 22nd day of July 1870, wrote her name - "Febby". That must have been what she called herself (or was called by most people). And I've always believed a person deserves to be called by the name they choose to go by - even if they can't spell or write or don't use their Christian name.

So "Febby" it is.

You are my gr-gr-gr grandmother.