Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Would the real parents of James Forgety please step forward


















A misidentification occurred when someone mixed up a James Forgety with the correct son of James R. Forgey Sr. and Rachel Miller, i.e. James R. Forgey Jr.. Both of these married women named Louise. James Forgety married Lulu Walker and James R. Forgey married Lulu Taylor. These, however, are two different men confirmed by the both marriage info and then names of their children.
There is a family tradition in the Forgety family that there was a family feud which resulted in the name being changed from Forgey to Forgety. One of James Forgey's daughters maiden name was misspelled Forgety on her marriage record. I am not finding a perfect fit for this James Forgety in the Forgey family. If they are indeed related to the Forgey family it could be the result of illegitamacy or maybe a feud resulted in the lack of recognition by the family of a son? DNA may prove or disprove the link to the Forgey family.
I've seen James Forgety's named spelled as Forgarty, Fogarty, and the spelling that became the standard spelling Forgety. I've never seem it spelled Forgey.
Jame Forgety and Wife Sally Manuel 1880 Washington County, VA ( Zack Clark may be a clue to more)

1900 Census Hawkins County, Tennessee James Forgarty family NOT SON OF JAMES FORGEY AND RACHEL MILLER 
The First Marriage of James Forgety was to Sarah Manuel in 1879  NOT CORRECT SON OF JAMES FORGEY AND RACHEL MILLER


1900 James R. Forgey CORRECT SON OF JAMES FORGEY AND RACHEL MILLER

Our first candidate

1) Now that we've reviewed everything we know about James Forgety we need to find the best match for his parents. I believe John Forgey and Jane Weeks would be the best match if the family tradition about the name change is true. James stated both parents were born in Tennessee so this would be a good match.
John Forgey McMinn, Tennessee (James Forgety lived in Hawkins County, TN which was the original area of settlement for this Forgey family of McMinn, TN)

Our second candidate

2) Bart. and Virginia Fogerty of Pulaski, Virginia. I found an Ellen Forgarty on the 1900 Census for Hawkins County, TN. She states she was born in Virginia in 1862. She also states she is single. It's possible that she married and divorced and changed her name back to her maiden name because I found a marriage for her also. It looks like I found her family (Bart. and Virginia) in Virginia and she did have a brother James. He was 14 in 1870. I have seen James year of birth as anywhere from 1847 to 1863? The problem with this is the fact that James Forgety most often said he was born in Tennessee other than the on the 1880 Census when Virginia was listed. He always stated his parents were born in Tennessee, never Ireland as Virginia and Bart said they were. said they were from. Also we don't have a similar naming pattern.

Ellen Forgarty 1900 Census Hawkins County, TN

We see Ellen had a brother James who would have been about the correct age for our James Forgety (1870 Census Pulaski, Virginia)

Our third Candidates

3) Another possible match would be James Fogarty and Susan. In 1880 James Forgety was living in Washington County, VA. This family also had connections to this area.Most of their children were born in Tennessee as James said he was. I have not found a Census for them in the time period when James would have been in their household. In 1880 James is listed as being born in Virginia. The problem here is they may have already had a son named James David which would have been a different person. At least his marriage record states his name was Jas. David which I am assuming is James? He is generally referred to as David in Census records.Another problem is James Forgey Sr. was born in Ireland which was never listed as James Forgety's father's birthplace.
James Fogarty family 1900 Census Sullivan County, TN (near Hawkins County, TN)

Our Fourth Candidates

4) Another possibility would be that the family is related through slavery. Meaning this family might have a Mulatto ancestor descended from James Forgey's line. The elder James Forgey did own slaves. It appears that his former slaves did adopt the name Forgey. It's interesting that a Mulatto named Lizzie Forgey also married into the Manuel family i.e. Lizzie Forgey to William Manuel. This marriage occurred around the same time as that of Sally Manuel to James Forgety. 

Mulatto Forgey Family 1880 Hawkins County, TN William Forgey and Lizzie Manuel

Our fifth Candidates

5) I found this family all the way in the western most part of Tennessee which would have been quite far away from Jame Forgety in far eastern Tennessee. I did think it was interesting that William Fogarty was born in Tennessee in 1798. There is a James Fogarty listed with him born about 1852 Tennessee. William and Frank were also names sons of our James Forgety.
William Fogarty was said to have been born in Tennessee in 1798 according to the 1870 Census

Missing records in Tennessee and Virginia is making the proper identification difficult. I think DNA is the onl way to go?





7 comments:

Unknown said...

Is there enough DNA evidence at this point to make that option viable?

Betty

Lynn Forgey Steele said...

I believe the real parents would be John Thomas Forgey and Louisa Jane Weeks Forgey.One reason I believe it was them is because of a story that my Grandfathers brother (Uncle John Forgey) told about his Dad's(Dave Forgey) older brother who left the family because of his sister marrying someone that the family did not approve of and they never saw him again. Never even heard of him again! They assumed he died.

Lynn Forgey Steele said...

I will do a DNA test if it will help and if Helen Travis would then we could compare the two lines. The reason I havn't done one is because Roger did one and ours would be very close.

Annette Kapple said...

Thanks very much Lynn! Wow, I never heard that story. So it sounds like it could be that family. I think a Forgety male may take the Y DNA test? Then we can compare his result with Roger.

GeneJ said...

"A misidentification occurred when someone mixed up a James Forgety with the correct son of James R. Forgey Sr. and Rachel Miller, i.e. James R. Forgey Jr."

Do these two different men have similar life spans?

I'm using wikis these days to sort out problems. I recently used 1870 US Census entries to help prove two men name Eli Ropp were not the same man. (I have what I believe are the two marriage records, but the census images somehow drive it home.) See the wiki page, "Two men named Eli Ropp."

http://cline-challenge.wikispaces.com/Two+men+named+Eli+Ropp

GeneJ said...

I think you have the two in the census ... so maybe the point is to separate the logic by first--they are two different men. This "proof argument" then stands on its own. Once you have them "proven" as separate, then the parentage argument about your man better advances on its own.

Annette said...

Thanks GeneJ! Yes, they did have basically the same life span. I can see where people got confused because they also married women with the same first name. We do definitely have two different men. We have a long genelogy for one and a short genealogy for the other.