My Aunt Adolphina, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Illinois, occasionally went by the name of Phena (or Feeny, Pheenie, Feenie, etc.). There’s one reference to her as Josephine. In over other record, she’s listed as Adolphina (or Adolphena) or one of the variants of Phena.
And it got me to wondering about the Josephine.
Did she tell the clerk her name was Phena (since that’s apparently when she was referred to by most relatives and friends) and the clerk assumed that her name was actually Josephine? I’m not certain, but the one reference to Josephine when all other references are to Adolphena or Feenie have me wondering. Sometimes variant spellings or names are because someone in the records office made an assumption.
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