My name is <James Morgan> and I am the Site manager of this Web site. My genealogy research is focused on William Morgan 1817 and his wife Lucy Cheatham 1820 Of Ava IL.If You can help your invited to contact me at jrm1302@gmail.com Thank you for visiting
Definition: Derived from the given name Morgan, from "mor", the sea, and "gan," born. Surname Origin: Welsh
William Morgan was born in Ava, Illinois in 1817, but we are not sure when his people first came from Ireland to the U.S.A. After the War of 1812 the men of the military were given land bounties in the Illinois Territory, possibly how Williams' family arrived in Illinois.
We do know that Patrick Curran , was born in Ireland in 1813, who married Catherine McCarthy, born in Ireland in 1825. They were the parents of Mary Curran, who married William Morgan's son William "Thomas" Morgan (b. 1850 in Ava, Illinois) who was the father of my grandfather Michael Curran Morgan (b. 1881 in Ava, Illinois).
INTRODUCTION
Floyd Thomas Morgan(1909 to 1953)&Bertha Elizabeth (nee Ferenbach) Morgan (1908 to 1998)Floyd Thomas Morgan, the father of the eleven children , was one of six children born to Michael Curran Morgan (1881-1958) and Ida May Shawen (1883-1934) of East St. Louis, Illinois. The first born, named Kenneth (Kenny), is said to have died shortly after childbirth, making Floyd the eldest of the five surviving siblings. His brothers and sisters, in subsequent birth order, were: Marguerite (nee Morgan) Fuller (1911- 1959); Michael (1913-1951); Edna May (nee Morgan) Daniels (1915- 1994); and Edward (1918- 1949).These five children were born over a nine year period, from 1909 to 1918, but four of them would die at fairly young ages from 1949 to 1959. Very little is known of the childhoods of Floyd and his siblings. We also know that his mother called him “my sunny boy”, which leads us to believe that Floyd was a happy child. He started working early in life, having finished only the fourth grade of public schooling.Our mother’s older sister, Mary (nee Ferenbach) Beil, introduced Bertha to Floyd. Joe Beil, Mary’s husband, was Floyd’s best friend at the time. Bertha was immediately attracted to Floyd because she thought he had such beautiful, big, brown eyes. Their relationship didn’t progress very far, though, because she had already decided she wanted to follow in the footsteps of the “Little Flower”, St. Theresa of Lisieux, by becoming a Carmelite Nun.Bertha was very religious, owing in no small part to the influence of her mother, Katherina (nee Allgaier) Ferenbach. (1870-1945). Her mother brought her strong Roman Catholic faith with her when she immigrated to America from the Black Forest area of Germany in 1893, when she was just twenty-three years of age. She definitely needed the strength of that faith as she set out to begin her new life. She made the trans-Atlantic journey, on her own, at the request of Karl Albert Ferenbach (1857-1928), a struggling young farmer who also emigrated from the Black Forest area of Germany. He was twenty-three years of age when his ship, the St. Laurent, arrived in New York on June 1st, 1881. He settled in Fieldon, Illinois, which was a popular destination for immigrant German farmers at that time. Not much is known about his first wife, Augusta Schmoeller (1863-1886), except that they were married on November 17, 1883, and she died just three years later when she was only twenty-three years old. When she died she left Albert with a six months old infant, whom they had named Karl Gustav (1885-1903). One can only assume that Augusta’s family lived in the vicinity and was able to help the relatively young widower with the raising of his young son. Their marriage license states that both Albert and Augusta lived in the Fieldon area.It’s not clear when or how often Albert wrote to Katherina Allgaier, or when he asked if she would be willing to join him in raising his child in his new homeland. What is known is that that son was already five years old by the time Katherina consented. It’s also unclear how Albert knew her well enough to make such a proposal, as she was only eleven years old when he left Germany for America. It’s probably safe to assume that he knew her family fairly well, and that he corresponded with them and then with her over a period of years before she was old enough and adventurous enough to throw caution to the wind. She married Albert on September 7, 1893, just seven months after her ship, the Slavonia, arrived in New York on February 18, 1893. He was 35 years of age and she 23 when they got married. Over a twenty-one year period they eventually raised an additional nine children of their own. Katherina actually bore eleven children during this time span, but three of them died in infancy or not long after. The eldest of their surviving daughters was Mary (1902-1992), and the youngest was Bertha (1908-1998), whom Katherina had named after her favorite sister back in Germany. The other surviving siblings were: Ernest (1894-1977), John (1897-1918), Francis (1900-1982), Theresa (1905-2002), Joseph (1911-1990), and Robert (1915-1996). The rest is Morgan Family history.Their wedding took place on June 4, 1932, at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Jerseyville, Illinois.They were both twenty-three years of age at the time, although he was eight months her junior. After the wedding they drove fifteen miles south to Alton, Illinois, to have their picture taken by a professional photographer. They got married during the Great Depression, and didn’t have much money for a honeymoon.The first child of Floyd and Bertha was born nine months and twenty days later.It was the first of many children to come, but none of them would have been born if Bertha had followed her doctor’s orders.He told her that because of her physical condition, the nature of which he never explained to her satisfaction, a second pregnancy would threaten her life.He told her that she and Floyd needed to practice birth control.The “rhythm” method of birth control was the only option available to them as Roman Catholics, and as Floyd exclaimed to the doctor when he learned that Bertha was pregnant again: “Rhythm doesn’t work!”In fact, as each of their children can bear witness, “rhythm” didn’t work a total of eleven times for them. In addition to the eleven children they raised during their time together, Floyd and Bertha had another pregnancy that never came to term. Both of our parents were year-round full-time parents and never had a family vacation.
