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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mississippi Burning/Could Grandpa's name be wrong?

I've been a lot of places on the Net since my last post about the Mississippi Forgeys. My job as one of the unofficial Forgey genealogists means I need to place all of the early familie with their correct lines. This sort of one name research in early American records can be very interesting and lead all sorts of places; and who knows may lead to breakthroughs in my own line.
So here we are a couple days later.
This is the path I took since my last post.

History of the state of California
 and biographical
 record of the Sierras,
  1. I looked at BLM GLO record for Mississippi and found this which has James Forgey and William both purchasing land in Lincoln County, Mississippi. Under the alternate spelling Forgay we find all 3 men, ie Joseph, James, and William buying land on the same day at the same land office.  William and Joseph buy land in closest proximity. Joseph buys land a little north of there. At this point I am ready to declare William as father of both Joseph and James as per these records and the 1800, 1820 Census.
  2. My case for this seemed to fall apart (crash and burn) at this point.I then checked for Forgay family biographies at google books. I found one for James Forgay's son Nathaniel B. Forgay. According to this 1906 biography Nathaniel Forgey's grandfather was Samuel Forgey who immigrated to the south from Scotland and fought in the Revolutionary War. It confirms what both the 1850 and 1860 Census say about James Forgey being born in Kentucky. It also states that James wife was Elizabeth Brown. There are several contradictions in facts in the bio. Elizabeth's birth place is given as Georgia in 1850 and 1860, and is given as Kentucky here. There are other factual contradictions presented here too. So we wonder if Samuel was actually the father of James or his grandfather? Or was the name Samuel wrong all together?
  3. That was yesterday; today I have searched feverishly for a Samuel in early 19th Century Kentucky. It was stated in the Gardner Family history that there was a Samuel Forgey in 1810 Kentucky? I have not found one. There is only a Samuel Faris.
  4. I then made a broader search for Samuel checking early Mississippi Territorial records at Ancestry.com and nothing surfaces there either.
  5. My search for Samuel's has brought me to Samuel Forgey born 1735 who married a Margaret Clements. This family had settled in Augusta, Virginia in the 1700's. This family looks very promising because they seem to have used the Forgay spelling sometimes. They also had associations with Buncombe, North Carolina and Kentucky. They may have had a son Joseph who married Rebecca Clements or he may have been a brother of Samuel?
Joseph Forgay Augusta County, VA after 1759 (Children of Jacob Clements listed)
Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia, extracted from the original court records of Augusta County, 1745-1800

So it looks like Samuel Forgey/ Forgay of Augusta, VA had a daughter Elizabeth born 1781? and a son named Joseph born quite a bit earlier? Or Jospeh was a brother of Samuel?
Still a lot to do on this. I am just going where it leads me. It reminds me of  when I learned to ride a bike. My father said "keep pedaling don't stop." If you stop you lose momentum and may fall off.



William and James land in Lincoln County, MS



William and Joseph's land is grouped together in the Corner of the township and James land is North  pink box.


2 comments:

  1. Tough area, the south in that time period. Have you tried the DAR records? They have a Samuel and a a James Forgey, both born in Ireland, both died in Kentucky. James has a son Samuel listed as being married to Elizabeth Scott. Happy hunting!

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  2. Thanks very much Sally! Yes, I am headed in the Samuel Forgey and James direction. There were many Samuels in these lines, as you might imagine. Samuel was the progenitor of this family. This eldest Samuel had an unborn unnamed child mentioned in his 1770 will which may be William? The other Samuel descendants have unnamed children which need to be found too. Lots to look at!

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