Family Bible of George A. and Lucy A. Wood
How I Found the Wood Family Bible
A city directory led me to my first and a huge genealogy find back in 1991, and before computers were much use in genealogical research. I had just stared in genealogy and knew little about my dad's Wood family. However, I remembered several relatives here in Florida that parents had visited with me years ago while I was in grade school. I knew I was related to these people who shared my surname, but I had no idea how. One had lived in Sarasota, another in Okeechobee, and another in Vero Beach.
I planned out a vacation trip with my wife to visit two of the locations, Sarasota and Okeechobee. Since Sarasota was on the Gulf Coast, we decided to stay on the beach. After checking in, the first location I went to was the Sarasota County Library. My wife and I started looking through the city directories for the name of the first couple, Clarence and Thelma Wood. I started with the date I had last visited them in the late 1950s. I quickly found them in the directory and advanced one year at a time until Clarence was no longer listed. Two years later Thelma was no longer listed. I then went to the State's published death directories the library had to determine the month they each died. (The day was not listed.) From there I started looking for them in the local newspaper's obituaries, yes real paper newspapers. The obits gave me the name of their children and it turned out that a daughter was shown as living in the area. I still had no idea who these people were other than we shared the Wood surname.
Back to the city directory to determine the daughter's husband's first name so I could look them up in the phone book. When I spoke to her I was astonished when she told me she had attended my wedding. I had no memory of that. She also said that her father Richard (who I remembered from the earlier visits but in a different Florida city) and my dad were first cousins. We met and had lunch together. She gave me her dad's phone number in Alabama where he had moved to. Later that day I gave Richard a call and also learned how I was related to the next person who was on the trip's agenda (who I knew had died years earlier).
What really blew me away was that Richard said his father Clarence, the one I had first looked up in the city directory, had possessed the family bible and had passed it down to him and then Richard passed it on to his son who still lived in the Sarasota area. I was able to visit his son he allowed me to make copies of the bible pages that you see below.
That trip gave me five generations of my family from using a city directory and reunited me with family I had forgotten.
About the Bible
A Bible was given to G.A. and and L.A. Wood (i.e. George Absalom Wood and his wife Lucy Ann Turner Wood) by Lucy's parents Ezekiel E. and Charlotte W. Thompson Turner of Clermont County Ohio. This Bible includes a record of George and Lucy's children and grandchildren though neither George's nor Lucy's parents were mentioned in the Bible nor are any locations provided. The inscription below is on the inside cover of the Bible.
"Presented to
G. A. and L. A. Wood
By
E. E. and C. W. Turner
May the 1, 1872.
Price $8.75."
This Bible has been passed down through Frank Clarence Wood, Clarence Richard Wood, Richard George Wood and is now in the possession of David Lawrence Wood.
Pages from the Bible showing births, marriages and deaths are presented below. They are presented as thumbnail copies. To see the full original, click on the thumbnail. A transcript copied verbatim of each of the pages is provided under its respective page. Note that in some cases, the persons names have been spelled differently. Where I have added text,that text is shown in italics.
Birth Records
(Click image for a larger image)
| George A. Wood Born October the 5 A. D. 1848 |
Carl Erwin Wood |
| Lucy A. Wood Born July the 25, A. D. 1851 |
Children of Frank C. and Erma E. Wood |
| Frank Clarence Wood Born May the 19, A. D. 1870 |
Raymond George Wood Born August 7th, 1895 |
| Lottie Marry Wood Born July the 1, A. D. 1872 |
Emmet Harding Wood Jan. 12th 1899 |
| Walter George Wood Born September the 20, 1874 |
Children of Frank C and Barbara A. Wood |
| David Edward Wood April 20, 1901 | |
| Clarence Richard Wood June 17, 1905 | |
| ; | (Children of Clarence R. and Thelma R. Wood) |
| Richard George Wood - Living | |
| Robert Edward Wood - Nov. 1, 1935 | |
| Carol Jean Wood - Living |
Items in Italics have been added for clairity.
|
Marriage Records
(Click image for a larger image)
Death Records (Click image for a larger image)
Found inside the bible was a clipping of an obituary for Charlotte W. Thompson Turner from an unidentified newspaper/newsletter, It was written by J. H. Lockwood, the minister that married her daughter Lucy A. Turner and George A. Wood on Aug. 15, 1869. That obituary read: Near Bethel, Clermont Co., O., Dec 14, 1873, Sister Charlotte Turner, in the 59 year of her age. |
