Thursday, May 4, 2017

Who are Annie Laura Wood's parents?

My 2nd Great Grandmother was Annie Laura Wood, she married John Guy Goodwin on 12 Jun 1893 in or around McKinney, Collin County, Texas.   She was born on 28 Feb 1874/1875 in Kentucky and passed  away on 24 Dec 1924 in Denver Colorado.  Annie had five children, only three of whom survived to adulthood.   She also had a brother named Sam E Wood.  

I had found these facts over a period of several years, some was gathered from the digital copies of records like the marriage record, census documents, her obituary/death announcement and some from family records/stories.   I have not yet ordered her death certificate from the State of Colorado, I just found the obituary this year confirming where she had died.  The family moved from Texas to Oklahoma to Texas to Colorado and finally back to Texas over several years.

When I first started this journey I knew only Annie's name.   My family has a tradition of naming their children after their grandparents.   My grandmother told me once that she was named Annie Laura after her grandmother, however her parents had decided to change her name to Faye Virginia sometime before she went to school.  She herself only found out about this after she was married and had to apply for a passport to move to Germany with my grandfather who was stationed there after WWII.  Her father provider her with her birth certificate and it had a different name on it, her father explained that after her grandmother had passed away they changed her name - she was around 3 years old at the time.  All other records were in the name she grew up with Faye Virginia.  Her mother, father and an aunt had to file affidavits attesting to the name change for her to get the passport.  My grandmother had a picture of Annie's headstone taken within days of her funeral.  So now I had a name and date.  It took several years of searching and putting a timeline together to locate where she had passed away.  I also was able to locate the marriage certificate between Annie and John by searching the areas where the couple had lived.   I found it in the town where John had grown up.

Annie's brother, Sam, was found living with John and Annie in the 1910 census, he was born in Texas in 1889.   But finding Annie and Sam's parents was even more difficult.  I found two different Annie/Anna Wood born around 1893 in Kentucky in the 1880 Census.   I also found another Annie Woods also born in Kentucky around the same time, also in the 1880 Census.  But which one, if any of them were my Annie.  None of these had a Sam in the family.   Sam was 15 years younger than Annie, so the 1880 Census would not have included Sam anyway.   By 1900 Annie was living with her husband, and would have been living with her husband had the 1890 Census survived.

On Ancestry.com there were a couple of trees that linked Annie to one set of parents in Kentucky, however that family did not have a Sam in it.   Someone found Annie and assumed it was her without checking all the facts.

By researching John's side of the family tree, I was able to locate more clues to the Wood family.   One of John's brother Oliver D had also married a Wood girl.   Oliver and Margaret "Maggie" Wood were married on 13 Dec 1893 also in or around McKinney, Collin County, Texas.   This discovery got me wondering if it was possible that Maggie and Annie were related, perhaps cousins or even sisters. Maggie Wood on Ancestry.com was linked to her parents with a few sources attached too.  

One of the families that I had research in the 1880 Census was Maggie's family.   There listed on the Census was Annie L Wood, this was indexed on Ancestry as "Anna L Wood".   But closer examination of the digital image of the census I could see the entry could have been either Anna or Annie as the a looked very sloppy and very well could have been "ie" written in a hurry.  But does this prove that Annie and Maggie were indeed sisters?

I thought I should keep looking, just in case.   I finally was able to locate Sam E. Wood's death certificate.   Sam died as a fairly young age of 37 in Houston, Harris County, Texas.   The informant on the death certificate was someone by the name of Bion Wood.   Sam was single at the time of his death, but had been married in 1910 (married less than a year at the time).  

I located a Bion Wood attached to another tree - this was also contained Margaret "Maggie" along with Sam and Anna.  

Now I am getting somewhere.   Although I am fairly certain I have the correct family, my next step is to order Annie's death certificate (if Colorado will accept my proof of relationship).    Hopefully that will confirm for me what I believe to be true.    Annie Laura Wood was born to Richard R "Dick" Wood and Mary Ann Richardson.


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