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Mary Phagan's family

Mary Phagan's family

Posted: 11 Feb 2001 5:46PM GMT
Edited: 15 Oct 2005 9:01PM GMT
I am looking for info on the Phagan family of Mary Phagan, the little girl who was killed in 1913 in Atlanta, GA. I believe her father's name was John Phagan. Others in the cametary plot are a W.J. Phagan 1854-1914 and a George N. Phagan. I have a relative Margaret Phagan born about 1900 who I believe was John Phagan's niece.

Mary Phagan

Posted: 14 Apr 2001 7:38AM GMT
Edited: 26 Jun 2001 2:57PM GMT
HI. I don't know if this helps at all, but my grandmother was Mary Phagan's cousin. I remember hearing the story of her murder. My grandmother, Sara Louise Benton (Dean) was related to the Phagan's and was from the Atlanta area, I just don't exactly how they were related. Still trying to find that out. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Mary Phagan's Family

Amber Phagan (View posts)
Posted: 20 Apr 2001 2:10PM GMT
I not sure if I have the information you are looking for but, I am pretty sure I can get what you need, I am Mary Phagan's great great niece. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Mary Phagan

Posted: 23 Apr 2001 6:48PM GMT
Edited: 15 Oct 2005 9:01PM GMT
A Margaret Phagan maried my great uncle Marvin Eugene Turner in 1930. I guess they lived in Cobb County. From her husband's birth date I would guess margaret would have been born around 1900. Family lore says Margaret was related to Mary Phagan, somehow.

Margaret Phagan

Amber Phagan (View posts)
Posted: 24 Apr 2001 5:31PM GMT
Yes, I am pretty sure that Margaret Phagan was Mary's sister, Mary was born in 1900 I know for sure I will find out when Margaret was born. Let me know if I can be of further assistance. Glad to Help!!!
Posted: 28 Apr 2001 5:55AM GMT
Edited: 15 Oct 2005 9:01PM GMT
Boy am I confused. We found a family member who said the Margaret's name was Seagan not Phagan ! It seems like they said it like Phagan. Could some family members have changed the spelling ? Margaret was born in 1910 and father was a James Madison Seagan. Any thoughts ?

The Phagan Confusion

Amber Phagan (View posts)
Posted: 28 Apr 2001 6:41PM GMT
Well I know that Mary's mother did get remarried after Mary's dad died, ( he died when Mary was very young) I can't remember his name right off the back, back I know it wasn't Seagan, and I don't know of anyone changing the spelling of our last name, we date back to the eary 1700's, we could be talking about two different Margaret's... ( that is a popular name), just let me know if I can be of futher assistance...

MARY PHAGAN Killed as a child in Atlanta, GA Area

ANNI (View posts)
Posted: 10 May 2001 6:32PM GMT
Is this the sam little Mary Phagan that was killed in an industrial area; that a Black man was accused; that during his trial the Black man was cleared of all wrongdoing and the real killer brought to justice???

If you can answer "YES" then you and Amber Phagan are people I have been looking for for more years than I care to reveal......

As a child growing up, twice I watched a black & white movie about that particular event in history---on the late show.
The captions at the beginning of the movie clearly stated that this story was well documented in the Atlanta area newspapers as having happened.
The captions further stated that she was the couple's ONLY child and that she was the end of that line of phagan since the couple had the child so late in life and could have no more children....
It was not clear to me if they were saying the end of the line for the immediate family or if that couple was the end of that line as it had originall come to the states from over seas....
My mother tried to convince me it was the latter....but why she would have deliberately said that is another Paton Place Story in itself---to confuse and thwart my genealogy efforts....

As a child I used to sit at my grmother's knee and she would read from the family Bible stories and dates, etc about the struggles the clan endured to get to the USA. She and several of her children would tell the story of how two (2) brothers and their families Came to the Carolina Coast. AFter setting themselves up, they had no comprehension of the vast numbers that would follow or that were already here. They decided that one would keep the FAGAN spelling and the other brother would use the PHAGAN spelling. "Why?", you ask? The documented reason was so that if they got separated and couldn't find their way back to each other, then later generations would be able to recognize each other as being related.....
With the lack of education and a miriad of other reasons combined, most were not educated and some unable to read or write. They did know enough in those days to remember that people have always been told to spell it like it sounds.
Frequently, there were different varieties of how people were hearing the name pronounced and therefore numerous MISspellings---sometimes all for the same person and in the same document.
According to the Biblical documentation some of the PHagan epople got tired of arguing with others that it was ph instead of F and allowed their group to revert back to the Fagan spelling....Moses Phagan and his descentdants are a good example of this.
There are some of the group--it's not clear if it was a family feud or another version of spelling it like it sounds--of Fagan line that added and E to create FEAGAN.
Nunmerous time down thru history of the census enumerators decided which spelling they were going to use and often got it wrong and until recently "lost" a lot of our line of people for genealogy purposes.
Another waqy we have misplaced our line is that there were a good many times when boys were not given names but were given initials as a name....When they went into the service, the military command not only decided how their surname was going to be spelled, they sometimes did the deciding what name the intials were going to stand for -- in other cased they gave the enlisting person a chance to choose names for the initials---thereby losing their original identiy from there on to the grave.

It has been hotly debated all my life whether the Phagan group never bothered to push further west than the GA area or if some relatively unknow/unnoticed Phagan managed to escape to the west without any real notice so far as genealogy records would prove.
The rest of the Fagan group did push fruther west both per TN, AL, MS, TX, and other points west.

When my grandmother died she was living with her socalled favorite son and his wife. The daughter-in-law was so relieved to be rid of her that she stayed behind while the others were hanging around the funeral home and cleaned house....so clean that when the funeral was over and we all had gone back to the house, E V E R Y THING was cleared out that had belonged to grandma. This included the Bible that another daughter was going to use to prove the census wrong about her birth date for Social Security purposes. I have very vivid memories of them emptying trash cans, et trying to find what the daughter-in-law had done with the stuff but to no avail....and the d-n-l consistently denying any knowledge of how the stuff disappeared....
This Bible would have even told who was left in Ireland at the beginning of the 1700s when they left to come to the USA.....

Numerous futile efforts have been made over the years to reconstruct the line back to the time of the two brothers....

I am the only one still living of the relatives that remember ever being told the story of the original two brothers....

There was a [prtopm of the line that prospered and did really well for themselves. There were others in the line that took the attitude they were so relieved to be in the USA and untouchable by people persecuting them in Ireland, all they wanted to do was to lead really quiet, unobtrucive lives as they farmed their land and raised their children as they saw fit---as God fearing Christians. So therefore, they were the ones who for many years were looked down upon as the narry-do-well, have-not, dirt farmers.

Yet another very interesting phenomina for that time in history. People that did write usually were very well taught in the art of penmanship. Therefore many handwritings were very ornate and when records were made often it was exceedingly difficult distinguish in later years between script F T S, etc., lower case Es were made like Os are made today, lower case Rs and Ns were also frequently confusing to decipher.

According to my research and two other of my current-day cousins' research. the Margaret SEAGO(A)N was actually one of the members of the FAGAN line that somebody had added an E into.
If you are interested in this person I have limited proven data on Margaret.
If you like, I can also put you in touch with several others who have data on the FAGAN side of these two original brothers---until I told them and I started uncovering the proof, they did not know that some of the FAGANs in their research originally derived from the PHAGAN and knew nothing of the original story. They thought they had some excess FAGAN names that could not be connected up with our specific line...

HOPE I HAVE BORED YOU TO TEAR WITH THIS QUITE LENGTHY "DISSERTATION"

If you have any Qs, comments, data to share, please feel free to contact me at:
BRETTAHARTEI@AOL.COM

Atlanta Phagans

Posted: 11 May 2001 8:21PM GMT
Edited: 15 Oct 2005 9:01PM GMT
I have sent an email to you, I would like to get a GEDCOM if possible on the ancestors of Margaret Seagan if you can get it.

Re: MARY PHAGAN Killed as a child in Atlanta, GA Area

kathryn yanick (View posts)
Posted: 27 Jan 2002 4:41AM GMT
Classification: Query
hello...if anyone out there reads this email post, Iam assisting my psychology professor in doing research on the death of mary phagan and the controversy surrounding this tragedy. Please email me or my professor, Dr. Crissman- his email is jcrissman@ben.edu
my email is: kathryn_yanick@ben.edu thank you very much!


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