Stray Branches of Our Family Tree

Hope Shotwell Woodward was born near Rahway, New Jersey, lived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania where she married Joseph Woodward. Because he was not a Quaker, Hope was condemned by her religious organization (it is difficult to describe in well-known terms since they did not use contemporary terms such as "church".) This is all that appears about her in a myriad of published genealogies, family group sheets and online trees. Here, as they say, is the rest of her story. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + I will try to be brief since this a blog, but most of my past editors have accused me of being overly wordy. It's just that there is so much to tell, and I love finding clues that tell the stories of our female ancestors :-) Rahway is in the upper left. This image is of a Library of Congress map of 1776 near the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Hope was born in 1782 near the end. It is always horrifying for everyone in the war zone, but maybe especially for ...

While this is part two of Joseph's story , I do want to mention his brothers. Alexander died at the age of about 10. Brother William was Sheriff during the Civil War in Morgan County, West Virginia. Brother John Wesley Fleece Flinn took his mother's maiden name when he moved to Ohio and served in the Union Army. The story of the three living brothers will be a future blog... + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Cemetery plot of Joseph and Rachel Dyche Fleece, Roundhead Cemetery near the tiny village of Roundhead in Roundhead Township, Hardin County, Ohio (named for Indian Chief Roundhead). The cemetery is east of the small village and a mile west of the farm my Fleece grandparents used to own. I walked the cemetery with my grandfather in my early teen years and while he showed me this plot of his grandparents, he did not mention a Civil War connection back in Morgan County (which he did talk about, often.) (Photography by author when she lived down the road, 1998.) ...