A Very Vital... Vital Statistic!

Recently, I discovered a cousin that I did not know of before. This cousin, Bart Burke, is descended from my Thomas West, Jr. and from that line is my 6^th. cousin one generation younger than me. However, he also descends from Joseph Phipps and Margaret G. Woodis making him a 3^rd. cousin one generation removed. We made arrangements to meet at Willard Library for me to give him a lot of new information on these lines. While preparing my information & notes, etc. - I remembered some great new information on the Woodis line that I had found, basically by accident.

The incident occurred at least 20 years ago when I learned from Mary Lou Bevers at one of our genealogical meetings – this alone is justification for joining a genealogical society! I often got some great tidbits of information and “secrets” that helped me in my research and especially getting around brick walls. This one was a simple one about all of the Kentucky birth & death certificates available in the State Office of Vital Statistics up to a not so distant date from the current day were listed in large volumes and several counties throughout Kentucky had them available for viewing in the courthouse. Henderson County, KY was one of these wonderful counties which is just across the Ohio River from Evansville where I live. I went rushing over there the next day looking for the death certificate of my great, great grandmother Cincinnati O. Williams the wife of William Ellis West of Christian Co., KY.

She was not listed in any format or variation I could think of. I decided to look up other death certificates for other ancestors. Woodis was always a good one to check first because there were so few of them. The furthermost that I had gone back was Littleberry Woodis and his wife Luvana (maiden name unknown). One of their sons (in my direct line) was William H. Woodis and his wife Amanda. This William was born in 1818 and I suspected that he had died before the 1870 census, since only Amanda and the kids could be found. This William and Amanda had a son William; with this second one having a William, also - making it 3 generations in a row with a William Woodis. In the vital statistics books I found a William Woodis that died in 1913 in Christian County with his death certificate number. Since I was confident that the oldest William had died before 1870 and besides he would have been about 95 years old in 1913! The third William seemed too young and should have lived past 1913... maybe. So, I suspected this to be the middle William that I did not descend, but hopefully he would have his mother's full name (Amanda ?) listed on his death certificate. I sent off for it and was so excited to get it in the mail about a week later. But, when I opened it, I was confused as it said he was born in 1818 and died at age 95 with his father Littleberry Woodis and his mother was Luvana Blalock... this was William H. Woodis who I thought died in 1870 or earlier! Later, I found him in the census in Illinois and back to Kentucky for the other census that he would have been in. He had divorced Amanda Black and married Nancy Cannon before the 1879 Census.

William H. Woodis Obituary: Hopkinsville Kentuckian Mar. 25, 1913 PIONEER CITIZEN

W. H. Woodis Dies Near Laytonsville, Aged 95, among the oldest citizens of the county died Fri. night at the home of his son-in-law W. H. Woodford, near Laytonsville. Death was caused by pneumonia and resulted after an illness of only 5 days. The deceased was born in this county June 9, 1818, and he was therefore nearly 95 years old. His parents were natives of NC . Mr. Woodis had resided in Christian all of his life, excepting about two years which were spent in Illinois. He is survived by three children: Mrs. Woodford, of Laytonsville; W.R. Woodis of Todd Co. and T.A. Woodis of Lewisburg, Logan Co. His wife passed away about a year ago. Mr. Woodis was a member of the Methodist Church, having professed religion during a revival at Vaughn's Grove last summer. He had been twice married, his first wife died many years ago. The interment took place at Ebenezer Saturday.

- Written by JGWest