There are extensive trees on Ancestry.com posted by James Rodgers,
Patrick Loughran and Christopher Larkin that include the Woods family of
Moymore, County Tyrone; and more trees with less data, but many basic
facts on this famliy. Also Lauren Bannon (born in Co. Down) has posted
Woods family data on people's Ancestry.com trees -- including very nice
vintage photos and birth/marriage/death certificates. If you don't have
an Ancestry.com membership, I'll be glad to contact these members and
ask about their data and connections to the Woods family of Moymore.
Their email addresses aren't listed with their trees; each member is
contacted through Ancestry's "anonymous" message service.
James Rodgers (Ancestry.com member) appears to be a great-grandson of
Patrick Joseph Rodgers and Susan Woods. He lists the children of John
Woods and Mary Conway as:
Patrick Joseph Woods 1882–1956
Alice G Woods-Nelson 1883–1943
Susan A Woods-Rodgers 1884–1956
Mary Ann Woods-Dwyer 1887–1957
James Woods 1889–1967
Peter Woods 1891–1938
Agnes Marie Woods-Clifton 1894–1966
[Note that he has hyphenated the women's married surnames]
Patrick Loughran (Ancestry.com member) has more children listed for John
Woods and Mary Conway:
Alice G Woods 1877–1943
Patrick Joseph Woods 1880–1956
Catherine (Kate) Woods 1882–1953
Susan Woods 1886–
Mary Ann Woods 1887–1957
Susan A Woods 1888–1956
James Woods 1889–1967
James Woods 1890–
Peter Woods 1891–1938
Agnes Marie Woods 1894–1966
Rose Ann Woods 1896–1978
Brigid Woods 1899–1908
I haven't checked each child to see if the data is correct, but I can
see at a glance (and by comparing to the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses
and civil birth records) that neither list is quite right. James Rodgers
doesn't have all the children, and Patrick Loughran's list is repetitive
in the children's names. He didn't get Susan's correct birth date
(1884), but he did identify the daughter Bridget who was born in 1899
and died in 1908.
The father John Woods died 29th November 1907 at Moymore, age 58, and
that's why you see him with his wife Mary Conway and their children in
the 1901 census, but not in 1911, when the widowed Mary was counted at
Moymore with her children who hadn't yet left the home. Moymore is in
the Superintendent Registrar's District of Cookstown, Registrar's
District of Pomeroy, and Poor Law Union of Cookstown. Also, although
Moymore is in the Pomeroy Electoral Division, it's in the civil parish
of Desertcreat, in Dungannon Upper Barony. Irish place names and
government/civil/religious jurisdictions can be confusing!
I checked for John and Mary Woods' children who remained in Ireland and
might have descendants still living in County Tyrone today. If your
niece who visited County Tyrone hasn't given you the names and
residences of the relatives she found, you can probably identify more
about them yourself with a bit of searching, even without the land-line
telephone directories that are fading out of business.
Most of the Woods children emigrated to the USA, but at least two
remained and died in County Tyrone. I looked for those children and
grandchildren who died the most recently, and so whose families might
still be found in County Tyrone today.
John and Mary's daughter Catherine "Kate" Woods (1882–1953), married
Patrick Rafferty and lived at Carrickmore, a village west of Pomeroy.
Among their children, daughter Alice Rafferty (1923–2005) married James
Toal. Alice died in the Omagh nursing home and isburied in Carrickmore
Roman Catholic Cemetery. She and James Toal have memorials on Findagrave
-- see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83466666/alice-toal.
An obituary or funeral notice would name their immediate surviving
relatives, although not with the detail that's commonly published in
American obituaries.
John and Mary's daughter Rose Ann Woods (1896–1978) married Joseph
Toner. She died at Cookstown, according to the Ancestry.com trees that
I've mentioned above, but I haven't traced and found in what cemetery
they may be buried. Their daughter Mary Rose Toner married a Bannon, and
she died in 2013 in Newry, County Down. These are probably the ancestors
of Ancestry.com member Lauren Bannon who has vintage family photos.
Since the Woods family was Catholic, it's a good research effort to
contact Catholic churches in the area around Moymore and Pomeroy. John
Woods and Mary Conway married in 1876 at the "Roman Catholic Chapel of
Cookstown," which is a good place to search. This chapel is probably the
Cookstown church named "Holy Trinity" today; someone else on this list
can probably tell you.See https://cookstownparish.com/
And, confirmation of these churches being ones attended by the Woods of
Moymore is in one of the daughters' marriages. Catherine Wood and
Patrick Rafferty married in 1916 at the Roman Catholic Church of
Tullyodonnell in Cookstown Poor Law Union, Pomeroy Registration
District. Tullyodonnell is the area called "The Rock" which is covered
by the Holy Trinity clergy of Cookstown today.
Geographically, looking on a map from west to east: Carrickmore /
Pomeroy / Moymore (a little northeast of Pomeroy Forest) / The Rock
(Tullyodonnell) / Cookstown (northeast of The Rock). All those places
would have been very familiar to your Woods family.
The wonderful County Tyrone web site, of which this list is a part, has
a list of Catholic churches that you might also consult. See
https://www.cotyroneireland.com/churchrecord/churchlist.html
If you wrote to the Catholic clergy in the area and asked about Woods,
Rafferty, Toal, Toner and Bannon, you might find more leads to families
living around there today. Some of your relatives might be members of
those churches.
The Tyrone Constitution newspaper, established in 1844, is the oldest
newspaper in the county, and one of the longest-running in Northern
Ireland. I'd search for obituaries/death notices in that newspaper for
the relatives I've told you about. The same news company owns the Tyrone
Courier, which can be searched. Besides searching death notices, if you
sent a "family history" query to the editors, they might publish an
article about your search for living relatives. And of course you can
post your questions on Facebook groups and other on-line media.
The Dungannon Library has newspapers that can be consulted on microfilm,
including the Tyrone Constitution and Tyrone Courier up until 2010. I
don't know if you can pay one of their staff to do research for you.
I've only accessed their archives through the help of friends who visit
the library in person. See
https://www.librariesni.org.uk/resources/cultural-heritage/newspaper-library/
On Susan Woods herself, various records give her birth date as 1886 or
1888. Her husband's 1920 naturalization record has her birth date as 10
August 1886, at "Pomeroy, Ireland," while her Pennsylvania death
certificate has her birth date as August 10, 1888. However, the only
birth record I see for her is the 1884 record already posted for you by
Elwyn Soutter, who's an excellent County Tyrone researcher and a very
helpful person.
Regards,
Annie
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