Okay, since I started this, here's what my ggg grandfather Elijah Megabee said about his name; "It's MEG-abee, but spelled like in the bible". Believe it or not its the only oral tradition that has survived the generations of our family intact. The only thing I could figure was that he was referring to the hard 'g' sound for pronunciation, and short 'a' sound for the spelling. I'm guessing he used the name Magby or Magbee since his daughter Margaret is listed as Magby. Robert Magby's granddaughters though, used the spelling Magbee on the 1870 census for Montgomery Co AR where they were living in the household of Margaret Magby and her husband, James A. Baker. Since there's no hard and fast rule evidently for the spelling or pronunciation, its whatever the user could get across to the enumerator. Ali Ingle United we stand, divided we fall. God Bless America!! From: LuAnn Kline <kluann@juno.com> More on how to say the name--John Esco Mcbee was born in Union county TN about 1875 He was my mother-in-law's grandfather, and she always called him grampa Mack. He wrote his name McBee with the c raised as well, and said it Mack-bee. cya LuAnn kluann@juno.com _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com