Thomas Woodbury is my 5th Great-grand uncle. He was born 9/5/1700 in Beverly, Massachusetts and died 10/3/1757 in Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. I believe this will was written shortly before his death in 1757.You start to get an idea of just how far I am digging into my family ancestry :-)
His last will and testament was the first family will document I was able to uncover. As I have said, Maine is a genealogists dream come true (I wish all my family had lived there). They have done such a thorough job of cataloging historical documents and making them available to the public. I have included a full copy of Thomas Woodbury's will. I was able to find this from searching an online Google e-book titled "Maine wills: 1640-1760 By Maine Historical Society".
If you have relatives that died in Maine in that time period, check this out.
I do recommend searching Google e-books, they can be an effective source of historical information.
In addition, Thomas Woodbury's will is witnessed by my 5th Great-grandfather, John Armstrong.
From the will you can see that Thomas Woodbury was pretty well off by the standards of the time.
Nothing like a cow to remember daddy and show your love.
Welcome to the genealogy blogging community! I write a blog from Londonderry, NH, and I saw your blog listed by Thomas MacEntee, from Geneabloggers.com I just want you to know we must be cousins, since I'm a descendant of the Woodburys- in fact, I was born in Beverly!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather! Isn't it amazing all the family members you find when you start researching the your family history? Always a pleasure to meet a distant cousin!
ReplyDeleteHi Chris,
ReplyDeleteLet me add my welcome to Heather's. I'm another
Woodbury descendant through my Ellingwood line. I
agree about Maine, and all New England for that matter, being a great place to be researching ancestors!
Hi Bill! Thank you for the welcome. I seem to find a new relative everyday or they find me! There is nothing more satisfying that learning more about where you came from. I am related to the Woodbury's through my 3rd Great-grandmother, Betsey Woodbury, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
ReplyDelete