I chose this ancestor because I feel the need to go back in time to ask why this marriage took place. What was happening in the family environment that led to this event? What would compel the parents to give their permission for the marriage? I cannot accept that the couple married for love.
My first record of Josephine Woodburn is from my grandmother Olive Roll Howes 3×5 index card listing her parent’s family names. Grandma Olive was way into genealogy back in the 60’s. She would so get a kick of the records we have access to today. Josephine was my first brick wall outside of the Polish side.
Grandma Olive’s 3×5 card
I knew she died young and her husband John Thomas Pittman remarried and had more children. My next clue was the 1910 Census for John Pittman. Josephine is not listed. The three oldest girls and the new wife are in the record. So this implies that Josephine died sometime after her third daughter was born and John’s remarriage. Long before computers, I searched the microfilms of the 1870 and 1880 Censuses looking for her. I had two possibilities and logged them on my Dad’s old letterhead and keep them in the pile of records. Year’s later I added them to my Ancestry Shoebox for future reference. The information just wasn’t quire right. They were for two separate Josephine’s. One born in 1862 had a mother named Martha, I have an Aunt Martha. The 1880 record of a Josephine had all the matching info, except the age was off.
I searched over the past 25 years to no avail. As computers came online I searched again, but I needed records. I so needed the 1890 Census lost forever to fire and water. I was sure that would tie everything together. I scoured various Internet sites looking for records; again, I needed more records online.
My favorite genealogical website is KYGenWeb – Online Kentucky Genealogy Resources. It is definitely the go to site for your Kentucky and Indiana ancestors. I would spend hours search their records for information. This was before they added a search engine. I would open every single link and comb through line by line looking for references, sources, any clue to long lost relatives. I check back every so often to see if they added more records that I could search. A few years back I found my wrecking ball at KYGenweb. That elusive piece of information that would finally bring down that brick wall.
I don’t think I will ever have empirical sources on Josephine Woodburn. The records I have found do demonstrate both direct and indirect evidence. The indirect evidence is my wrecking ball. KYGenWeb provided a listing of burial records at the Old Dovey Cemetery in Central City, KY. It is an original transcription from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Cemeteries Vol. 1 by Marian G. Hammers. 1976. There near the bottom, a record for J.K. Woodburn, wife of J.T. Pittman, December 11, 1872 – February 12, 1893.
But was it my Josephine Woodburn? I use the dates given searching for birth and death records, nothing is found on Josephine. I do find records for the girls linking them to Josephine and John Pittman. It would take another year, before the index of Josephine and John’s marriage is online. Their marriage date in October 28, 1885. I am still haunted by that 1880 Census. The birth date on the cemetery listing fits the Josephine listed on the census. The brick wall in my brain will not accept it at all. That Josephine born in 1872 is too young to be my Josephine.
What in Sam’s Hell was going on in the Woodburn family in 1885? I am beginning to think that this Woodburn line were the poor relations of the family. Struggling financially to get by raising and providing for the family. Did Josephine’s father Benjamin C Woodburn injuries from the civil war affect his ability to provide for his family? Where is my time machine? I have a lot of questions to ask you Benjamin and Rachael (Sims) Woodburn!
Marriage Bond for John T Pittman and Josephine Woodburn
I found the marriage bond for John Thomas Pittman and Josephine K. Woodburn at Familysearch.org. Agreeing to the marriage was B.C. Woodburn. The wedding took place at the home of B. C. Woodburn, witnesses were Levi Eaves (family relation) and Josephine’s brother, Charles Woodburn. John Pittman is 22 years old, Josephine is listed as 14. FOURTEEN! Who in the ^*&*% let’s their child get married at FOURTEEN?! But Josephine is not 14, she is 12 years old. She will be 13 years old six weeks later. I just cannot fathom why a 22 year old would marry a 12 year old.
Their first child, Grace Pittman Holmes is born in 1887, followed by Mable Laura Pittman Roll in 1889. Mary Katherine (Kit) Pittman Jackson is born in August 1892. Josephine Woodburn Pittman is dead six months later.
At the age of 36, John T. Pittman marries Ella McDowell, 29 in 1900. They have four children together. By the 1910 Census, Josephine’s daughters have left the house. My grandmother Olive, says that John Pittman demanded a lot from his girls, housecleaning and taking care of their younger siblings. They left as soon as they were able. John out lived both his wives, Ella passed away in 1936. John lived to be 93 and passed away in 1956.
I was not able to find Josephine’s headstone listed at Findagrave. It may be lost to time or just overlooked. I think the headstone has a story to tell. In a time when men rule and women have no rights, maybe Josephine’s family wanted her to be remember forever as a Woodburn. Because the stone does not say J.K. Pittman in a time where women lost their identity. Her stone reads J.K. Woodburn.