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.) ...

JOSEPH DIMMIT FLEECE, 1827-1899 West Virginia to Ohio. The purpose of Stray Branches is to bring forth stories that are little known or to call attention to new facts and resources that may have been difficult to find in the past. Overview. Joseph was born in 1827 in what is now Morgan County, West Virginia, county seat Martinsburg. However, when he was born it was actually Berkeley County, Virginia, county seat Berkeley Springs. Berkeley Springs, Virginia is now also in West Virginia. The two towns are about 25 miles from each other. To further complicate things Berkeley Springs (the city) used to be known as Bath, named in honor of England's spa city of Bath because of the hot springs but was changed to Berkeley Springs in 1802. So early Fleece records sometimes say Bath, Virginia. "George Washington slept there" is in fact, true, but the subject of another story. Joseph's middle name of Dimmit supposedly comes from the maiden name of a grandmother. This ...

While this blog site is mostly a soapbox to tell the story of some of our ancestors that have not had their full story (or a wrong story) told, I also may slide sideways into other areas of genealogical interest that helps to eak out the little details that strengthen their biographies. Today's sideways roll is  My Personal Genealogical Holy Trinity : the three things I most want to find about an ancestor: 1. Photographs. I always look for photographs. I have a very large extended family, one of which is still has yearly reunions, and others of whom keep in touch via FaceBook. These are great ways to ask for more photographs, because there are never enough. With the apps available for cell phones, it is extremely easy to make copies without it ever leaving the hands of the owner. This is extremely important for many people who own valuable photographs. And it doesn't just have to be photographs of people. In the collage above, in the lower right corner, is a picture...

THIS LITTLE TWIGGIE... I've recently, at my grandson's request, started working on his family tree. I haven't worked on this branch since the mid-1980s, before even Steve Jobs knew what was going to happen with computers. Yeah, he wanted our phones to take photographs, but who would have thought thousands of courthouse records would end up on the interent? Who even dreamed of something remotely close to a thing like the internet? Or find-a-grave.com...every grave stone in the United States on the internet with a picture? Seriously? It is even branching out to other countries. Absolutely astounding! And FREE :-) There have been three books written about my grandson's paternal line, the first written in the late 1800s. I use previously written books as my jumping off point to lead me to primary sources. Much later than the Civil War, and I start getting foggy -- it's difficult to read the handwriting, and Colonial America is way out of my comfort zone -- British...