The Sad Face graphics should be shown with all listing of the name Wright  to express my thoughts about being responsible for this misunderstanding about Celia's maiden name.   In the early 1970s, I was searching census records for Liberty and McIntosh counties, Georgia, where the Hope family had lived.  I found a listing for what looked like "Wright Hope", a young man who was a grandson of William Hope, Sr., not through Celia, but through his second wife.  On a subsequent reading of that census I decided "Wright Hope" was really another "William Hope".  I was also aware that William and Celia had a grandson James "Wright" Baggs.

It was common in the old days to name boys for military heroes or successful politicians, as well as for ministers, doctors and other highly respected men.  The only famous Wright I found was James Wright, the royal governor of Georgia during the American Revolution.  It does not seem likely that a patriotic American family, the Baggs, would have named a son, nearly fifty years later, for such an individual.  But, I may be wrong because recently I learned there is a James Wright Square in downtown Savannah.  Like the British, we Americans are soon to forget and forgive our enemies.  What other country than England celebrates the anniversary of being defeated?  As I write I am thinking of the invasion of England by William the Conqueror and his Norman soldiers in 1066.

I wrote a cousin, Richard Brunegraff, asking what he thought of the possibility of Celia's maiden name having been "Wright".  Remember, I was still thinking that the younger William Hope was Wright Hope.  Richard was the primary Hope family genealogist, having the names of more Hope descendants in his files than anyone else I knew. In his enthusiasm, he wrote the name Wright with a question mark beside Celia's name on his family group sheet.

Later, he shared copies of it with others.  Some of them, in their even more exhuberant enthusiasm, ignored Richard's question mark, and suddenly Mrs. Celia (maiden name unknown) Hope became Mrs. Celia (Wright) Hope.  Now, this misinformation is all over the Internet, I'm told.  I haven't had the courage to search for it.  And it's on dozens of group sheets, some likely in the archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and now on the IGI website.

So, I must apologize for all the misunderstanding and problems that my active mind and even more active fingers created when I wrote Richard that innocent question.  I do feel slightly better when it occurs to me that someone should have asked, "What is the source?"

Please delete "Wright" from your records as Celia's maiden name. Please print a copy of this webpage and use it as your documentation. And, lastly, please share this information with others who have the same mistake in their records. Thank you!