William J. Woodside

The second son of William Steward Woodside and Rose Ann Lyons Smith, William J. was born on January 23, 1879 in Perry County, Illinois.

He enlisted in the U.S. Infantry at Evansville, Indiana in November of 1901, serving in the Spanish-American War. The enlistment papers say he was 5 ft. 9-1/4 inches, with blue eyes, dark brown hair, and fair complexion. In March of 1902 William was assigned to Company "I" 1st Infantry stationed in Samar, Phillipine Islands. I do not know when or where he was discharged, however, he appears in Buffalo, New York directories beginning in 1906.

William married Lillie B. Samcoe on July 25, 1906. They raised 4 children in Buffalo: William J., Jr., Pearl Lillian, Edna May, and Evelyn Anna. Edna and Evelyn were twins. Lillie died in 1954 and about a year later William moved to Florida where his daughter Pearl and her family were living. In 1959 William died in Tampa, Florida and his body was sent to Buffalo to be buried beside his wife and daughter Edna.

Most of this family are buried in Elmlawn Cemetery just north of Buffalo, New York.

Genealogical Research

Researching my family tree has been a long process. I first got interested around 1975 while living in Baltimore, Maryland. There was a lecture being given at the Maryland Historical Society on genealogy and, since I had some question on my maternal ancestors, I decided to see what I could learn. The course included reading The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood - a great book loaded with all kinds of helpful information.

At that time most research was done in person at court houses, libraries, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., visiting cemeteries, etc. and involved going through heavy ledger books and reading lots of books or microfilm. Tedious, time consuming work. But if you found some information it made the work all worth while. I even considered it fun (silly me). Today the computer provides many databases and indexes online allowing much of the work to be done at home. There are times, however, when you still need to get out there and visit those court houses, libraries, archives, and cemeteries. I actually like this part the best.

Don't forget to check out web sites for the various states, counties, and genealogical societies in your areas of interest. And leave queries on their message boards, if they have them.

A word of advice when using other people's genealogical research information - check out the sources. While I use primary and secondary sources for my information, many people put information on line that they have picked up from other people with no idea where that information came from. Since there are many common given and surnames, it is a BIG mistake to just accept any information found without checking it out yourself. I suggest you do this with any information you find on my blogs as well, as I could have made a mis-step somewhere along the line.

Rose Ann Lyons Smith

While Rose Ann's parents and 4 of her siblings were born in County Antrim, Ireland, Rose Ann was born in Marissa, St. Clair County, Illinois about March of 1855. Her parents were Thomas Smith, Jr. and Rose (Getty) Gibson.

Rose Ann married William Steward Woodside on February 3, 1876, in Swanwick, Perry County, Illinois. They spent most of their married life farming in Perry County where Rose Ann gave birth to 2 sons and 1 daughter: John Thomas, William J., and Annie. Sometime between 1881 and 1886 they moved to Greenville, Bond County, Illinois. Rose Ann gave birth to her 4th child, an unnamed son, on June 18, 1886. Rose Ann died shortly after the birth of her son. The cause of death is listed as "childbirth", 35 hours. According to the death record, she was moved to St. Clair for burial. I have not yet found the grave but believe she is probably buried with her Smith family.

John Thomas Woodside

John Thomas Woodside, son of William Steward Woodside and Rose Ann Lyons Smith, was born in Swanwick, Perry County, Illinois on June 15, 1877. He enlisted in the Army on July 21, 1899 at Evansville, Indiana, with Company F, 3rd Regiment, U.S. Infantry. He was honorably discharged July 20, 1902 at Presidio, San Francisco, California, with the rank of Sergeant.

He married Ida May Williams on October 5, 1905 in San Francisco where they remained until shortly after the 1906 earthquake. They moved to Poinsett County, Arkansas, near his father, where he returned to farming. In 1908 they had a daughter, Ida Blanche. Some time between 1910 and 1920 John moved his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived out the rest of his life.

John Thomas died on May 14, 1948, and is buried at the Beverly National Cemetery in New Jersey. His wife, Ida May died on February 15, 1959, and is buried alongside her husband.

When I discovered I had a Smith branch in my Woodside line, my first thought was 'Oh no, how will I ever find any information'. All I had was one name, no place of birth, no parents or siblings names - nothing to distinquish my Rose Ann Smith from any other Rose Ann Smith. But wait, she did have a middle name of Lyons; how many Rose Ann Lyons Smiths could there be?

Also, I knew my grandfather was born in Illinois, so that was where I started looking. I found the 1880 U.S. Census entry listing my grandfather with his parents and brother, living in Perry County, Illinois. Rose A. was shown as being born in Illinois, so now I knew where to look. I sent for and received a copy of William and Rose's marriage certificate, but it gave no additional information. All my searching was done before the wonderful age of doing genealogy research on the computer. Everything seemed to take so-o-o-o long.

To make a long story short, in the mid 1990s I saw a query on one of the Woodside message boards and wrote to the person who listed the query. Then I forgot about it. He apparently forwarded the letter on, because a couple of years later I received a letter from Illinois. The writer turned out to be a new-found cousin who had a connection to the Smith line. We were both so excited to find each other and share information. She not only helped me take the Smith line all the way back to Ireland, but she provided information on the Lyons line.

William Steward Woodside

My great grandfather, William Steward Woodside, was born about February 1853 in Swanwick, Perry County, Illinois. His parents were John Morrow Woodside and Lucinda Eveline Pettit. He married Rose Ann Lyons Smith on 3 February 1876 in Swanwick, Perry County, Illinois. He was a farmer for most of his life.

Rose Ann and William had four children:

• John Thomas - born 15 June 1877 in Swanwick, Perry County
• William J. - born 23 January 1879 in Perry County
• Annie - born 12 December 1880 in Grand Cote, Perry County
• male child - born 18 June 1886 in Greenville, Bond County

Rose Ann died shortly after giving birth to her 4th child. William remarried on 2 December 1886 at Greenville, Bond County, to Frances E. (Grimes) Pate, a widow. It is unknown at this time what happened to Frances, but William married a third time on 20 September 1888 at Smithboro, Bond County, to Mary (Kedler) Powell, a widow.

Sometime between 1900 and 1910 William and Mary, along with her 2 sons from her previous marriage, moved to Poinsett County, Arkansas. William died in 1919 in Craighead County, Arkansas.