Women's History Month - #3

This challenge has been exciting!  I am enjoying the rediscovery of the love of my ancestors who were women.

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

Well, I wasn't named for anyone in my family tree - or so I thought.

I was actually named for the woman my mother worked for.  She cleaned house for a woman whose husband was a supermarket owner in my hometown.  I quote from mom's journal:

"I Ida Clemens lived at 294 East arch St in 1955 and that is where our baby Peggy Lynn was borned I was 41 years of age when she come to live with us.  Betty Lee was passed 16 years of age when Peggy Lynn was borned ever one sure was shocked.  I worked for Peggy & Dave Sternbaum when we learned we was going to have here the Saints here give us a Shower we just had every thing we needed.  She was borned on 8 July 1955  at 10 oclock inthe Mansfield Ohio General Hospitial in Richland co.  Dr Bonar was the Dr that delivered hir.  My Dr was out of towon on Vacation Dr Robert Allison.  We had to much company to seethe new baby.  And the weather was Hot."

Mom was actually about six months' along when she felt she should go to the doctor, where she was informed she had "Cupid's tumor."  All she heard was the word "tumor".  Then he informed her she would be having a baby in the middle of the summer.

However, I have now discovered several women named Peggy in my family tree.  Most were named Margaret, though I was not.  It really does seem to be a family name.

The most unusual name I have found is one that I have blogged about before - that of John Ellen Offill.  I just don't understand why in the world she was named John.  Her grandfather's name was John, as well as her husband's.  She's a beautiful woman.

But, her name is John...

My Offill Dilemma!

When I was a younger and less experienced genealogist, I had an interesting situation concerning one of my ancestors, the brother of one of my grandmothers who lived in the mid-1800's.  Grandmother's name was Martha Patsy Everman Offill. Her brother's name was John.

Or, was it her sister?

I was puzzled about this every time I saw the entry on the various census records.  In 1850, John E. is listed as a 2 year old female living in the household of Elzaphan and Martha Everman in Carter Co.,KY.  He/she is the seventh daughter in the family.

But, just 10 years later, John E. is listed as an 11 year old male!

Good grief!!!  I just didn't know what to think.  

Life went on, and I didn't really pursue the situation, because John was not really a direct ancestor.  He/she was the brother/sister of a direct-line grandmother.  I was raising a young family (4 children under 5!), and did the best I could in just getting a pedigree chart maintained and extended.

I listed my Offill family with the old Family Registry (remember those at the Family History Centers?).  It appeared on subsequent microfiche, and I went on to other families.

Then, out of the blue, I received a small package in the mail from a man in California that I'd never heard of.  He had seen my entry on the Family Registry, and enclosed a note saying, "I bet you're wondering about my g-g-grandmother, John Ellen Offill."

John was a woman!  I'd seen her listed as John Allen, John Ellen, John everything.  He even enclosed a picture of her.

John Ellen Offill Campbell

What a handsome and stylish woman! 

There were a couple of other pictures that even showed her cooking at an old cookstove.  John married a man named John Andrew Campbell, and the two Johns appear on the 1925 Linton Co., Iowa State Census as husband and wife.

I'm not quite sure how she acquired the name of John.  My best guess is that this family was "daughtered out", and had always wanted a son.  John was the name of both of her grandfathers.  They feminized it by adding Ellen to it. Some recorded it as "Allen".  Then, she married a man by the name of John. 

Sometimes, things are just not as they appear.  I have now learned to include all of the siblings of my grandparents.  This is how "genealogy"  becomes "family history".