My husband’s family tree has a very tangled branch in his family tree and it’s been years – 2019 – since I last worked on it. A newbie researcher contacted me about the Woodruff family and we began corresponding.

One of the documents I shared with her was the will of David Woodruff, written in May 1841 and recorded in court in October of the same year.

She wrote back saying that since David was a brother of her ancestor, it wasn’t anything she needed.

However, when the family tree includes Nathaniel Woodruff with an unknown wife being the father of Samuel Woodruff, born c1762 who married Jennett Woodruff, daughter of Moses and Phebe (MNU) Woodruff, who had a son Joseph Woodruff, who married Mary Woodruff, daughter of another Samuel Woodruff and Mary Dinsmore AND they all used very similar given names for their children, it’s very easy to see why collateral wills are important.

Add all that to the universal family tree online that has children and grandchildren confused and assigned to the wrong parents (as proven by wills), it becomes crystal clear why collateral lines are so important.

Part 2 in this series will identify (most of) the children of Samuel Woodruff by at least two wives.

Identifying the children of David Woodruff will enable the reader to better understand Samuel’s estate administration.

David Woodruff’s will is found in Hopkins County, Kentucky Will Book 4:325-326.

In the Name of God , Amen , I David Woodruff of the County of Hopkins and State of Kentucky being weak of body Will but of sound and disposing memory make and publish the my last Will and Testament in manner following

1st My will is after my decese That my spirit return to God who gave it and that my body be plainly but decently intered .

2nd My wish is that all my just debts and funeral expences be paid out of my affects

3d my wish is that Josiah S Gardner Keep and enjoy peaceably the room he now occupies with his stable & Lot as long as he may wish at to remain with his stock of goods upon the same terms he has had them heretofore

4th my will is that my wife Elizabeth have my bay mare paul with my Derbin and seers suitable to work to it her Sadle and bridle Bed & furniture and one hundred dollars in cash , with my three little Negres Viz Russel , Henry & Martha also her family room with the yard surrounding it with the Kitchen Smoke house mill house, spring and spring Lot , and such portion of the Garden as she may wish to cultivate, all of which property I wish my wife Elizabeth fully to enjoy while she may remain a widow,

5th My will is that my son William P Woodruff have the farm on which Hier estimated at Two hundred dollars by his paying to my estate one hundred dollars

6th My Will is that my daughter Nancy Jane have one hundred dollars in cash

7th My will is that my Horse mill, Waggon & gear Horse Hogs sheep cattle farming utentials household and Kitchen furniture all be exposed to public sale& all the proffits arising from the said to be equally divided between my four children and wife, in addition to all the above named property I wish all the goods and chattels belonging to my estate exposed to sale at the time of the above named property and the proceed to be disposed of in the way above directed betwixt my wife and four children,

8th my will is that my daughter Nancy Jane Woodruff in addition to the hundred dollars I have willed her be made equal with my other children in point of household and Kitchen furniture, also that my daughter [Nancy]Jane be clothed and schoold out of the property and monney willed to my wife Elizabeth,

9th My wish is that my Son Dinsmore Woodruff and my son in law Israel Davis serve as my Executor and in conclusion I must add that I have done the best I could for my beloved wife and children and I hope the Lord will protect them and bless them in the use of and render them satisfied with what I have given them

In Witness whereof I affix my name on this the fifteenth day of May Eighteen hundred and forty one

David Woodruff

Attest J S. Gardner
Washington Dunkerson

Examd Kentucky Hopkins County ⎬ Sct October County Court 1841 . This Instrument of writing was produced in Court and proven to be the last Will and Testament of David Woodruff decd whose name is thereto subscribed by the oaths of J S Gardner & Washington Dunkerson subscribing Witnesses thereto and as such ordered to be recorded , Whereupon the same is recorded accordingly Att Sam Woodson

David Woodruff married Elizabeth Jones on 16 November 1814 in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Assuming he was about 25 years old when he married, David’s birth year can be estimated as c1789. He was almost certainly born in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Children: (Woodruff)

1. Dinsmore, born 18 August 1815, Hopkins County, Kentucky; died 14 March 1904, Hopkins County, Kentucky; married Serena Dunkerson, 15 October 1835, Hopkins County, Kentucky. Marriage record calls her Selina, but all later primary records call her Serena.
2. William P., born c1818, Kentucky; died shortly before 15 November 1852 when his estate inventory was filed in Caldwell County Court; married (1) Rosannah Davis, 9 May 1840, Hopkins County, Kentucky (2) Martha Brooks, 18 February 1846, Caldwell County, Kentucky
3. Dicey, born 26 January 1820, Hopkins County, Kentucky; died 17 September 1908, Hopkins County, Kentucky; married Israel Davis, 17 November 1836, Hopkins County, Kentucky
4. Nancy Jane, born c1832, Hopkins county, Kentucky; married William W. Cardwell, 25 November 1851, Caldwell County, Kentucky

Two comments in closing – Online trees show David Woodruff with five children – Dinsmore, William, Dicey, Nancy Jane and Jane. However, David clearly states – TWICE – in his will that he has a wife and FOUR children. These statements clarify that “Jane” who is to be raised out of monies left to Elizabeth is the same person as “Nancy Jane.”

Lastly, the fate of Elizabeth is left hanging in online trees. Elizabeth (Jones) Woodruff married (2) William Davis, 9 December 1842, Hopkins county, Kentucky and he died by 1849 (3) James Hezekiah Puryear, 20 December 1849, Hopkins County, Kentucky. James died before 30 October 1855, also in Hopkins County.

Elizabeth (Jones) (Woodruff) (Davis) Puryear died on 1 June 1868, Hopkins County, Kentucky. She is buried in Grapevine Cemetery #1 in Madisonville, Hopkins, Kentucky where her gravestone is still legible today.

Now that there is proof of the wife and children of David Woodruff, the estate of Samuel Woodruff, his father, can be better understood.