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Re: Phignora.
There are only two people named Fignora and none named Phignora in the indexes to US census records on Ancestry Library. One of the two is a man in Puerto Rico and looking at the original census record shows that's probably a mistake for the Spanish surname Figueroa.The other person in the 1900 and 1910 censuses is a Black girl named Fignora King living in Texas. This is just a guess, but when you Google "Fignora" you get several references to what turns out to be the Italian title "Signora" written in old-style script where the capital "S" looks like an "F" to most modern people. So there is an outside chance the Fignora was originally a mistake when someone saw Signora written in that script and thought it as a name starting with "F" instead of the title. Then Phignora would just have developed as a spelling variation of Fignora. Here's a link to an example of "Signora" written in this old typeface that makes it look like "Fignora":http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/negri/facsimile/0041.pdf
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Thank you for your explanation, Cleveland Kent Evans! I personally think the 'Signora' possibility seems most likely, because it wouldn't have been the first time for this kind of mistake to have happened in the United States. Most Americans aren't that familiar with foreign customs or words (and certainly not in the early 20th century - hence the many registration mistakes at Ellis Island), so I can certainly envision that particular scenario. :)Anyway, thank you again and enjoy the rest of your day! :D
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