Foy Byrd Montgomery Case Study

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The Curious Case of the Gender Mix-up of Foy Byrd Montgomery

Most everyone who knew Foy would say that Foy was: kind hearted, giving, serving, a parent of two boys, active in the local Methodist church, a devoted spouse, and above all a female. I would conquer as her granddaughter but there are those who would argue that fact. How could several people firmly believe that Foy was a male? That in there lies the mystery.

When we begin our search for evidence of a person’s past we often look to many documents to aid us. Often we may look for a birth certificate or Christianing record or even a death record. However, many people may start out using census records to help them in gathering a basic timeline …show more content…

However, what if that person had an unusual name? In this case one that was generally given to men. Can we be so quick to assume that what we find in one census should be fact despite subsequent contrary census data? The answer to many is no, we should find primary source records to confirm what we find on a census. But, what if we don’t have that information and continue to be lead in the wrong direction. This sets the stage for the gender issue for …show more content…

However, if you look at the original census you can see that it is indeed Foy and not “Fay”. This is a clear case of why looking at the original is beneficial instead of relying on the interpretation of an indexer. Many people stop and assume that the previous census records were of a different person and not correct. Especially if they don’t know Foy’s siblings nor her parent’s names.

Now, there is another Foy Byrd that was born in 1908 that we can easily trace through the 1910 and 1920 census. He is the only child of Charles L. Byrd and Zenobia G. Byrd. He is listed as a male, white, and as being born in 1909. It can be easy to assume based on just this information this is the same Foy Byrd listed in the 1940 census instead of reading the original census records. Following this thought, though will lead to the wrong person as we will see.

In the 1930 census, there is only one male Foy Byrd that is easily found that was born in AL around 1909. This doesn’t help with the confusion between the two Foys’. The Foy that we find is the one with the parents of Ed and Erie Byrd. This clearly is my grandmother however; it takes reading the original family group on the census record to confirm this. Had I only gone on the interpretation of the indexed information I would have missed the clues that show the

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