This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Woods, Sheppard/Shepherd, McPass, Thompson, Ramsey, Wright, O’Guinn, Grammer, McClard, Watkins/Wadkins Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2JB.2ACE/449.1 Message Board Post: R.F.B. Woods, reported by the Sulphur Springs Gazette to have died in Hopkins County, Texas, in November 1909, may be identifiable with the 13-year-old Robert Woods living in this Cape Girardeau County household in 1850: Dwelling 727 WOODS, Samuel, 56, male, b. NC WOODS, Christina, 46, female, b. NC WOODS, Elizabeth, 17, female, b. MO WOODS, Margaret, 15, female, b. MO WOODS, Robert, 13, male, b. MO WOODS, Joseph, 10, male, b. MO WOODS, Emily, 8, female, b. MO Most, but not all, of the other heads of household around this Woods household were North Carolina-born. The 1860 census shows this Woods household: Shawnee Township, Dwelling 2376 WOODS, Saml., 62, male, b. NC WOODS, Christine, 56, female, b. NC WOODS, Joseph C., 19, male, b. MO WOODS, Emely R., 17, female, b. MO WOODS, Robert, 22, male, b. MO WOODS, Mary E., 30, female, b. NC WOODS, Elizabeth E., 24, female, b. MO WOODS, Marg., 22, female, b. MO I believe this was the household, also in Shawnee Township, of R.F.B. Woods’ future bride, Julia Sheppard: Dwelling 2482 SHEPPARD, Delevan, 48, male, b. NC SHEPPARD, Susan, N., 40, female, b. MO SHEPPARD, Benj. B, 14, male, b. MO SHEPPARD, Julia P., 12, female, b. MO SHEPPARD, Emely D., 6, female, b. MO SHEPPARD, Hy C., 3, male, b. MO There was an Amanda Woods living in the next-listed household as well: Dwelling 2483 McPASS, George, 23, male, b. England McPASS, Minerva, 23, female, b. MO McPASS, Amanda L., 3, female, b. MO WOODS, Amanda, 30, female, b. NC In 1870, Samuel Woods, was living in this Sheppard household, as likely were Robert (Barabbas?) and his wife, Julia (Sheppard) Woods: Dwelling 62 SHEPPARD, Deavin, 50, male, b. NC SHEPPARD, Susan, 51, female, b. NC SHEPPARD, Emily, 15, female, b. MO SHEPPARD, Clay, 12, male, b. MO WOODS, Barabbas, 32, male, b. MO WOODS, Julia, 21, female, b. MO THOMPSON, Edward, 51, male, b. NC WOODS, Samuel, 73, male, b. NC By coincidence, I’ve been rooting around (virtually) in this same area of Shawnee Township over the past week or so, trying to sort out a tangle of Ramsey-Wright-O’Guinn-Grammer-McClard-Watkins/Wadkins connections. I believe the area where all these folks lived was near Neely’s Landing, on the Mississippi north of Cape Girardeau City. Delevan Sheppard and R.F. Woods were reported to be two of the “jurors” called to help identify the dead (200 or more) and their possessions from the wreck of the steamboat Stonewall near Neely’s Landing on 27 October 1869. Solomon O’Guinn, two of whose daughters married Ramsey men and a third who married my Wright great-grandmother’s brother, was another Stonewall juror. A goodly number of Delevan Sheppard’s Shawnee Township neighbors are listed as jurors or others hired to work on the wreck.