While struggling to decipher handwriting in the 1850 Lawrence County, MS census I have repeatedly came across the same first name, which I cannot accurately decipher. Ancestry’s index lists the given name as Linsey and Lenicy. Here’s how they view on the census itself:
The image above clearly shows the i as the second letter. MyFamily’s transcribers have interpreted this as Linsey… but the letter before the y has consistently been written as a c through out the census. So “Linsey” is cleary incorrect. The image above is the mother of the name written below, one would think the child is carrying on the mothers name:
This brings us back to the two ladies in the Robbins family. By the 1860 census, either mom or the daughter is residing with Jethro and the other children. Mom “Linecy” must have died during this time, while the child “Lenicy” married. A search of marriage records proves fruitless. I do know that the Robbins family moved during the 1850’s from Lawrence County, MS to Marion County, MS. They end up on the 1860 census living next door to Pleasant Bryant and his family, who also moved from Lawrence County to Marion County. What’s up with that???
Until records come to light that can prove these are Lucy and a slip of the hand by the enumerator, they will remain Linecy and Lenicy in my official transcription.
UPDATE: With help from the MSCHAT mailing list, I believe we were able to correctly identify the name of the ladies as Levicy. There were more then 100 people in the 1850 census with that name.