Hello all on the list and especially Mary Ellen Woods Jackson. Mary Ellen, you wrote as follows: "My ancestry on the Woods lineage (to the best of my knowledge) is Native American closely tied to the Louisiana soil. However, my ancestors were enslaved and hence the surname Woods. My grandfather's name was Eddie Woods born abt. 1900 who married a Mary Alice (Ada) Jones of West Indian and African lineage. Would you know of any such Woods in your family tree?" I have searched my data base and can find no trace of the names you mention. As far as I can establish, two sons of James Woods, a cheesemonger from London, and his wife, Ann Pontifex came to South Africa late last century. They were William Tipping Woods and Edwin Woods. The former, William Tipping Woods, descendants subsequently hyphenated their surname and are now known as "Tipping-Woods" I have a customer resident in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe who descends from this line. His name is Cedric Tipping-Woods, which sounds a lot more important than just plain "Woods". The latter, Edwin Woods married Emilie Harrington Cook and produced a large family. Almost all the descendants stayed in South Africa until quite recently. Since the late 1980's, the ease of international travel, and the opportunities that exist for younger people abroad, has prompted many young South Africans (including some of those bearing the Woods name no doubt) to seek their fortunes abroad. Prior to the recent "emigration" of younger South Africans, very few people from our family emigrated. I have two daughters, both married, who have gone abroad. Our eldest and her husband have settled in Ontario Canada, while the younger one and her husband are living in Kansas USA. Despite e-mail, we spend a fortune on telephone calls! It seems that most of the member of this list are researching in North America. I shall attempt to do some local "advertising" on our South African Rootsweb list to see whether I can persuade South African Woods researchers to subscribe to the "Woods" the list. If anything appears on the South African list with reference to the Woods family, I shall forward it to the Woods list for general interest. Should any subscriber to this list wish to post anything pertaining to research in South or Southern Africa please let me know, and I shall then forward such postings to the South African list. Regards, Dan Daniel Durban,Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. E-mail: cldaniel@mweb.co.za Researching: DANIEL, WOODS, PEDDLE, NORMAND