Welcome to the official website of the Woodham Family Association, a national family club for all descendants of the Woodham family. It is dedicated to gathering and preserving our family heritage and was founded in 1978 by Robert Earl Woodham. He also founded and held the first Woodham Family National Reunion on Memorial Day weekend, 1979 at Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, Alabama. At this reunion, Robert Earl was elected President of the Association and later elected permanent President. Read more on the history of your Family Association below.

Family History

We have a Family HISTORY section where brief information on our family history will be posted, along with copies of historical records. The newest history section is a list of all known Woodham kin who served in World War II, including five who died in action. There is also a page on Edward Woodham Junior, a soldier in the American Revolution. If you want to know more about your Woodham family history, contact our family Historian. Click on "HISTORY" in the INDEX below.

Family Newsletter

We now have an online version of our family newsletter. The printed version was founded in 1979. Our online version includes color photos, something we have never been able to have in our printed version. Hope you enjoy. Click on "NEWS" in the INDEX below.

Woodham Books

We have several books now available on Woodham Family history and more being compiled that you can order from the Family club. Click on "BOOKS" in the INDEX below.

Memorials

We have added a family Memorials section where you can post a memorial in honor of a deceased loved one. You can include poems, information on birth, death, etc., a photo and personal memories of them. Click on "MEMORIALS" in the INDEX below.

Our Purpose and Goals:

• Reunite our scattered and divided family
  in the last 350 years, our family has spread from England to Virginia to South Carolina and Georgia; today we are scattered all over the world--our relatives have even returned to our homeland in England; our main goal is to provide an organization that gives us an anchor to unite our entire family. We are trying to do this through our national family club. Read the history of the Association below.
• Gather and preserve our family heritage
  we are trying to gather and preserve our family heritage, so that Woodham descendants everywhere can discover their family roots without having to spend a lifetime searching through records scattered all over the South. Until a few years ago, not one single Woodham knew anything about our family's origins and few had any idea of kinship to other Woodham's around the nation; we all have an inner longing to know our roots.
• Sponsor the Woodham Family National Library<
  our Woodham Family National Library has been created to gather and preserve all the records we can find on our family. It is a massive collection of family information and copies of public and private documents gathered over the years by the family historian, Robert Earl Woodham. Upon his death, the Library will be donated to either the public library in Dothan, Alabama or the Alabama State Archives in Montgomery, to be preserved for future generations.
• Sponsor the Woodham Family National Reunion
  the Woodham Family National Reunion was founded in 1979 by Robert Earl Woodham, our family historian; the Reunion offers a chance to renew our kinships and help hold our family together
• Sponsor the Woodham Family Journal
  the printed version of our family newsletter was founded in 1979 by the Association President and family historian, Robert Earl Woodham. He continues as Editor of the newsletter; it contains current news, weddings, obituaries, births, family history and other articles about both living relatives and our ancestors; click on "Journal" in the INDEX below.
• Restore and preserve our historic Woodham Family Cemeteries
  where the ancestors of all our family lie buried. Click on Cemeteries above to learn more about your two family cemeteries and your ancestors buried in them.

History of Our Association

The Woodham Family Association was founded in late 1978 by family historian Robert Earl Woodham. Early that year, an Atlanta, Ga. newspaper wrote an article about his family history hobby and relatives from LaGrange, Georgia contacted him to learn more about their family. They did not even know their grandfather's name, only his nickname of "Bud", until Robert Earl told them his full name and history. They asked him to help them organize a reunion of their branch: he provided names and many addresses. The reunion that summer was so successful that it gave Robert Earl the idea of holding a reunion for ALL the Woodham family. Two and one half months after he made the decision, the first Woodham Family National Reunion was held at Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, Alabama.

The reunion was originally planned as a one-day event on the Sunday before national Memorial Day at the end of May, 1979. Robert Earl decided to add a Saturday night cookout for the kinfolk who would be staying in motels from out of town. He arrived on Wednesday, well ahead of the reunion to make sure arrangements were ok. He found a line of Woodham kin ahead of him already registering for lodge rooms. They got there early so they "wouldn't miss anything." The "Sunday" reunion got started right then. Those in the line all decided on the spur of the moment to go out to supper together and we closed the fish resturant at the airport that night. This went on all day Thursday and picked up even more Friday. A van load of mostly grandmothers from south Florida arrived Friday only to discover the bitter cold wave that swept the nation. They went to every store in town trying to find sweaters. I sat up with them until 2:30 AM and as soon as they left, more kinfolk came in from Maryland. I was in "hog's heaven" with excitement and happiness!

Robert Earl expected about 150 kinfolk but hoped for at least 200. By Thursday, the place was packed with Woodham kinfolk.

1,600 Attend First Woodham National Reunion

Instead of an expected handful of kinfolk for the Saturday night cookout, the picnic area was full with hundreds of relatives all day long. On Sunday, hundreds of kinfolk packed the picnic area and park officials and relatives had to bring in additional tables. Instead of 150 kinfolk, an estimated 1,600 Woodham relatives came over a three day period from as far as California, South Carolina, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, Virginia, Mississippi, Connecticut, Indiana, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland, Alabama and other areas, filling the park for several days.

Woodham kinfolk filled the town. Since it was a holiday weekend, those who did not learn about the reunion in time to make advance motel reservations were forced to go to nearby cities for rooms. Three sisters from Baltimore, Maryland flew to Atlanta, rented a car and drove all the way to Eufaula, only to discover there were no rooms available. They drove all 40 miles back to Columbus, Georgia to get rooms. The reunion was held in the midst of the fake "oil shortage" so many kinfolk filled their car trunks and even motorhomes with cans and barrells of spare gasoline. One family from Micigan put two barrels of gas in their motorhome, while another from Texas came in a pickup truck with four people in the front seat--so they could pub two barrels of gas in the back of the pickup. One family drown all the way down from Connecticut but left Saturday evening to make sure they would be able to get back home because of the gas "shortage"...thus missing the actual reunion on Sunday.

The Woodham Family Association was formally organized that Sunday and Robert Earl was elected President. He continues to hold this office and also serves as editor of the official family newsletter (see our online version).

During our first year, membership reached 322, the largest number of paid members we have ever had. Since then, more than two-thirds of those Founding Members have died. Younger relatives have thus far failed to sustain the membership and as our older members have died, our numbers have dropped significantly since 1979.

(more of our Association's history will be added as we continue to work on the site)

Woodham Family National Library

The Woodham Family National Library is the huge collection of records and information gathered by the family historian, Robert Earl Woodham, over a period of 50 years. He started his hobby of family history at age 12. He lost his father in the war when he was a small child and his grandfather died not long afterward, so he grew up without knowing either of them. He began his family history hobby as a way of getting to know his father's family.

The Library consists of every type of printed record that can be found on ALL descendants of the Woodham family. This includes US Census records and state census records; marriage licenses and bonds; birth and death certificates; military records from all wars since Colonial times up to today; obituaries; tombstone inscriptions from cemeteries. Deeds, state land grants and patents; federal homestead records; wills; estate records; court records; voter registration lists. Also newspaper and magazine articles; wedding and engagement announcements; birth notices; old letters; photographs; funeral home records. Selective Service registration cards from World War I and World War II; printed info from books; copies of listings from city directories; church records; school awards, certificates, etc.; prepared family information directly from relatives; and more.

Our collection contains dozens of notebooks full of records and information. Information about relatives is typed onto a family record sheet which Robert Earl designed. He has such family sheets on several thousand descendants of our family, filling more than 30 notebooks.