While writing about my own Thomas Williams yesterday, I thought about a collateral line of my husband’s – Thomas Williams, son of Roger Williams, born 22 June 1777, probably in Cumberland County, Virginia.
Thomas married Elizabeth Woodson, daughter of Anderson Woodson, on 13 December 1805 in Campbell County, Virginia.
He died in Bedford County, Virginia before January 1823, leaving his widow and five small children.
His father, Roger Williams, died in the summer of 1835 and mentioned the five grandchildren by name in his will: Thomas, Woodson, John, Samuel B. and William W. Williams.
These five sons have been a brick wall for me for many years. Except for Woodson, their names are all extremely common. Other than the fact they were all living in 1835, I have been unable to determine what happened to any of them.
My focus has been on Woodson Williams, given that his name is the most rare of the five boys.
Their birth order is unknown, but the five boys had to have been born between 1806 (assuming no early babies) and early 1823.
I estimated births to be c1806, 1808, 1810, 1812 and 1814. However, that is assuming that Elizabeth had children every two years after marriage and that no children died young (which was, unfortunately, very common).
Whether Thomas, Woodson or John had middle names is unknown, but they might have since Samuel and William were known to have middle initials.
I decided to use FamilySearch full-text search to uncover any potential new clues and I came up with a very good suspect to be Woodson Williams:
One Joseph W. Williams wrote his will in Green County, Kentucky on 18 September 1856, but it wasn’t proved in court until 22 April 1868.
Why did I like this guy so much?
First, in the 1850 census, he was called Woodson W. Williams, born c1802 in Virginia. That puts him in the right state and born in the right time frame, within a few years. Census ages are often not correct and he’s a full ten years older than his wife. If, say Bettie, gave her parents’ ages to the census taker, she might have only known that he was several years older than her mother and guessed his age.
Second, an early DAR member was descended from Woodson and Martha and look how she referred to him:
Third, Woodson married Martha W. Webster on 23 December 1829, Green County, Kentucky. Even if born, say c1810, being orphaned and on his own, he was old enough to marry in 1829.
Fourth, he had a daughter named Bettie (nickname for Elizabeth) A. Williams, born c1831, a daughter Sally Fanny, born c1836, a son, Thomas, born c1837 and daughter Lucinda, born c1851. Remember, Woodson’s parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Williams.
His will named these four children.
Fifth, Martha Webster was reportedly from Amelia County, Virginia and my husband’s Williams family had ties by marriage to Amelia County.
Children:
- Elizabeth A., born c1831, Kentucky; married Mr. Vaughan, before 1856
- Sarah Fanny, born c1836, Kentucky
- Thomas, born c1837, Kentucky
- Lucinda C., born 13 January 1851, Kentucky; died 28 August 1911, Pondera County, Montana; married John Milton Robinson, 24 September 1867, Green County, Kentucky
Readers, what do you think ? Is Joseph Woodson Williams a viable candidate to the be the of Thomas and Elizabeth (Woodson) Williams of Bedford County, Virginia?