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
