Woody Gleanings
 

Origin of the Name

    The name seems to be English in origin and means; "one who came from Woodhay; an enclosure in the woods", also; "a dweller at the enclosure in the woods; a wild man". Woodhay was a place name in Berkshire and Hampshire. Some very early English Woody's: Thomas de la Wdhaye c. 1275; Robert atte Wodeheye c. 1333, Somerset 1275; Roger Wody c. 1255; John Woodye c. 1568.

What's In a Name?

    In many cases, the transcription of old documents is a difficult task at best. As they are today,  the writers of  documents were sometimes impatient and sloppy. What's more, the spelling of names was often left to the census taker, minister, clerk, justice or other person that was recording the information. Today, the power of print provides weighty evidence to many researchers and finding the identical  information in several printed sources provides indisputable evidence. They seem to forget that almost all of what they read in print had to be transcribed from the written page. Although the great majority of transcribers strive to accurately decipher source documents, even they can and do disagree among themselves. To fully appreciate this situation, every researcher should try their hand at transcribing some old documents. In addition, as printed documents have been and are still being copied (i.e.: retyped and published on the internet), additional mistakes invariably occur.

    Here is a sampling of the names that one should be aware of when researching the Woody surname: Wooddy, Woddy, Wody, Woode, Woodde, Woodee, Wooddey, Woodie, Wooday, Woodya, Woodye, Woodly, Wooly, Waddy, Wady, de Woody and other variations on this theme. In addition, the letters W and M were infrequently confused by transcribers, so be aware of  Moody and variations.
 

Other Researchers of the Henry & William Woody Lines

    The Tyree Tree with Angle, Byrd, Dillion, & Woody Branches by Dorothy Chambers Watts, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978. Mildred Motley Woody of Rocky Mount, Virginia contributed to the Randolph & Patience Woody line.  Mary Ellen Gilliland Woody of Springfield, Missouri contributed to the John & Prudence Woody line.

    The Gertrude Casler Mann Collection and The E. Marvin Raney Collection. These collected papers are available at the Franklin Co., Library, Rocky Mount, Virginia.

    Anita Lotts of Albert Lea, Minnesota has researched the Wyatt Woody line. One of her primary sources was The Heritage of the Toe River Valley by Lloyd Bailey.

    Chips of the Woody Block - The Woody Family Descending from William Woody (1760-1817) by Jeri Davis Lipov, Columbia, Maryland, 1996. The descendants of John & William Banks Woody of Arkansas.

Other Woody Lines

Several other Woody lines have been researched:

    The John Woody and Mary Gowan line is well documented back to about 1755 in Haw River, North Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland.  A starting point for this line might be A Stream of Time and Kinfolk and Where They Lived by Vivian R. Woody.

    Richard and Ann Woody  came to Boston c. 1640. Some believe that John Woody of Haw River, North Carolina is a descendant of Richard and Ann. See Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes.

    William Woody and Lady Sarah Parcel first settled on the Potomac River c. 1750, but soon moved to North Carolina. A good starting point is Revolutionary Soldiers, Jonathan Woody and Jacob Frederic Lagenauer, compiled by Ruth Lessley and Ruby Kansler as taken from the diary of W. C. Berry.

    Other researchers who have contributed significant information to the above lines are: Hugh E. Whitted, R. H. Hutchison, Francis Woody Werking, Mary Dell Wallace, the author of The Woody Family Tree: Let's Climb it Together and Sallie Stockard, the author of The History of Alamance.

    Obviously, some or all of these lines were in Virginia at same time as the Virginia Woody's. It is quite possible that some or all may be connected to the Henry and William Woody lines. There are some tantalizing facts that suggest a connection; however, to my knowledge, there is not a shred of proof  to support this theory.  In addition, recent yDNA evidence indicates that there were at least three unrelated Woody lines in Colonial America.

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Revised Jan 25, 2008