Our ancestors emigrated from England around 1640. The family originated in the area of Ivinghoe, Bucks County,England. In England the name was apparently spelled Hygebed. Both Clinton and Ida Forbes Higbie state that experts in names say that a Bishop Higbert in 970 may be the first ancestor. Words were spelled phonetically and spelling was not standardized as it is today, but the spelling does make one wonder how it was pronounced. The spelling changed to Higby shortly after the first Hygebed, Edward, arrived in America. As the family grew and spread out, three different spellings became common - Higby, Higbee, and Higbie. Based upon my searching on the internet, there are still Higbys and Higbeds in the vicinity of Ivinghoe and Tring.

Two of my relatives have provided much of the information on this web page. An aunt, Francis Lytle Higbie, and Clinton David Higby. Francis traced the Indiana branch back through Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc to Edward Higby and John Hygebed. I don't know if she used Clinton's book, "Edward Higby and his Descendents". This book has become the starting point for research on the family. There are gaps, and even though Clinton worked over 20 years gathering data and talking to people, he could not trace all the branches as the family grew. Also since his book was printed in 1927, it does not contain events that happened after that.

While I'm giving credit, I want to thank all the people who are members of the Higbie mailing list, hosted by rootsweb, who have contributed information, especially Jerri Berkley, Barbara Schmidt, and Harry Higbie.

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