The parents of Delliah Woods McNeely

Question

I am fortunate to have inherited a lot of family info from my father's sisters.  Part of that information is that my paternal great grandmother's name was Delilah Woods McNeely (1844-1880).

Delilah's 2nd husband was John Wesley Crockett Flowers (1854-1882) who was the son of Wiley Flowers and Margaret Finley Crockett.  Source can be found in "The Crockett Family and Connecting Lines" page 345 where you see the marriage between John and "Ollie" Wood.  This Ollie is actually Lilly which is the nickname Delilah went by her entire life.  My aunts actually met and spoke with 2 of Delilah's children by her first marriage who informed her of this.  The book also shows the Flowers children as Eddie and Homer.  This is Edmund and Charles.  I believe that Charles' middle name was Homer.  I have a mail out to my aunt on that.

Delilah was married first to Richard C. McNeely.  This is the obvious source for the McNeely in the Delilah Woods McNeely name I have seen my entire life on our family tree.  Richard Calvin McNeely was born about 1845 in TN.  I have no exact date of death but believe the marriage ended with his death rather than divorce.  They had 2 children (Lucy and Nancy).

I have traced this family thru every census I can see:

In 1880 the census shows John and Delilah with 4 children Lucy and Nancy McNeely and Charles and Edmund flowers.

In 1870 the census shows Richard and Delilah in AR with 2 children, Lucy and Nancy.

In 1850 i find Richard living with his parents and siblings in TN

In 1850 I find Delilah McNeely in TN at the age of 3 with parents of A. McNeely and Nancy McNeely.

In the 1860 census I find the most poorly transcribed entry I have ever seen for Lancy McNeely living with A. McNeely and her mother Nancy.  Lancy is actually Lilly.  This is so bad her brother Michael is transscribed as Winkirl.

So now I have a record for a Delila McNeely from 1850 to 1880.  Every 10 years from the age of 3 to her death.

I did some poking around on Family Search and Google and found a Dortha Woods that marred into the McNeely family.  That is the only explanation I have for Woods.  It may be that Delilah was given Woods as a middle name because Dortha is a close relation or it may be that her mother Nancy was a Woods.

So here is my question.  Can any of you assist me in finding Delilah's birth name and parents?

Thanks.

Comments

Welcome to G2G, Ron!  Do you have profiles for any of these relatives?

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I added Delilah as Woods_or_McNeely-1

Answer 1

Delilah married Richard 6 Nov 1865, so in the earlier Censuses you need to look for Delilah Woods - working on that.

"Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1950," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDQ2-TTP : 11 February 2018), Richard C. Mc Neeley and Delilah Woods, 06 Nov 1865; citing Obion,Tennessee, reference ; FHL microfilm 1,007,235.

This one comes with an image:

"Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKHM-6R4C : 6 November 2017), Richard C Mcneely and Delilah Woods, 06 Nov 1865; citing Obion, Tennessee, United States, Marriage, p. , Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville and county clerk offices from various counties; FHL microfilm 1,007,235.

Comments

I did that and got 0 hits in any of those census

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OK, but it means your McNeely records from 1850 and 1860 can't be her.

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Ok I will review the Woods line and see if I can find her.  Thanks.

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Here is a small nibble maybe.   What do you think the name of the 30 year old in this entry is?  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M67Z-1V9

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No promising leads for Woodses in 1850 or 1860.  There were some in Madison and Giles Counties, but no way to match them to Delilah in Obion County.  Here's her marriage to John Flowers, though.

"Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKHM-6658 : 6 November 2017), John Flowers and Delila McNeely, 05 Sep 1877; citing Obion, Tennessee, United States, Marriage, p. , Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville and county clerk offices from various counties; FHL microfilm 1,007,235.

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Just saw your previous comment.  It looks like Elender to me.  I think it would be a big stretch to say the little girl born in 1849 is your Delilah.  She would have to have moved to Arkansas then back to Tennessee by 1865.  And then spent the rest of her life adding five years to her age.  Not that it couldn't have happened.

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Yeah it is thin at best and I did some looking for Elender Woods and this was the only hit on him.   It is a shame to have this close of a branch end in a wall.   I have done my DNA and maybe something will come of that somewhere down the line.  Thanks for the help.

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Also I just noticed Elender is a woman.  lol