Although you will not find it in within the notes of this work I wish to recognize Ms. Lora Altine (Woodbury) Small who together with the Woodbury Genealogical Society (WGS) members gathered together the beginnings of this work.Lora Altine (Woodbury) Small was a superb genealogist and author of the three volume Small genealogy. Together, the John Woodbury and William Woodbury manuscripts she shepherded totaled about 7800+ names. I used their work as a basis of this work and set about proving; with vital records quotes, wills, headstone photographs and contacts with family members, the veracity of that work. I have made many corrections and additions to that work, I hope they would be proud of what has been done.
To Joseph Thompson Dodge, Ph.D., Author of the Genealogy of the Dodge Family of Essex County, Mass. 1629-1894. Volumes 1 & 2. It is a good and trusty work that I used to proof my many Dodge links. The Dodge's married into the Woodbury family more often than any other family. It would be hard to put into words the enormity of the contribution these volumes have made to the genealogy world-at-large.
To Robert Irving Taylor, now deceased, of Salem, NH. I found a copy of Ruth Woodbury's (WGS) manuscript in the Haverhill Public Library and it had a phone number from 1958. I called the number and Bob answered. That is where it all started, he related his meeting with Ruth Woodbury on her deathbed and our friendship grew very quickly and ended only a few months later.
To Greg Laing, Director of the Special Collections at Haverhill Public Library ~ Greg is a walking encyclopedia. I never met a more knowledgeable historian and genealogist with a handle on so many families. My wife and I were always entertained just to watch him work while he was unaware we were watching. The library has a collection of photographs of the houses in Haverhill. One one occasion someone walked through the door and asked where they could find information about their family, he said "Oh, you mean the (insert name here) family," and walked over and pulled one volume of the many volumed Essex Institute Books while discoursing about their early descendants and thumbing pages. Meanwhile a man had walked in and asked about the house pictures and Greg said, "Which address?" The man told him and Greg said, "Oh, that's a marvelous building, isn't the roof line in the closet upstairs great!" "That house was built by so-in-so in 1873 and burned in 1890 and was rebuilt by so-in-so." He would then mentally go through the list of owners. We saw him do this with other addresses on many occasions. We are better for having met him.
Also, to Katherine P. Loring and May Toomey who wrote the unpublished Ober Genealogy (1941). The manuscript is unpolished and without index or table of contents and many entries are hand written and compressed into the margins and written in between lines making portions almost indecipherable. With that said, theirs is a wonderful work that has lead down many paths that might otherwise have been lost.
To Phil Baltzer who sent me information about the descendants of Christopher Baltzer and Lydia Woodbury we are grateful.
To Lloyd O. Poland author of the Poland Genealogy ~ A man who dedicated a lifetime and his own resources to the work.
To Joe Ray who provided much information on the many interconnections of the Rea/Ray families
To Danial Smith who helped sort out many of the Mt. Desert Island Ober descendants.
To Charles Sumner Woodbury, who I finally located after a few years of being told how extensive his work in genealogy had been. Only to find out he had died 14 days before my letter found his residence.
To Clyde Arthur Woodbury III, now deceased, of Michigan. We corresponed for about 2 years before his passing but he was a valuable set of eyes a thousand miles from here.
To Barbara Allen (Norton) Woodbury of VT. ~ Barbara was employed for six years at the Springfield Town Library. In 1968 she went to work for the Times-Reporter, a daily Newspaper, until 1974. She filled in a branch from Belchertown, MA. to Springfield, VT that had stumped me.
To James McKim, a very good genealogist and one of the so-called coincidences of fate that unraveled one of the many Newbury/Newburyport deadend families from a book in an Indiana library.
To Francis George Woodbury, another so-called coincidence. While taking pictures of headstones in the Morrill, ME. cemetery I noticed a truck and two men setting a headstone. Being nosey and nonchalant, I worked my way around to find the headstone said Woodbury. I asked about the recently deceased and he said "they warn't deceased, it's my headstone". Being a bit reluctant to talk to us at first, when I explained who we were and what we were doing, he and his wife Norma opened up to us and he revealed that he was the sextant of the cemetery. We corresponded several times and they provided us with much information.
To Donna (Nicholson) Hoaglin, another remote set of eyes that helped tie down the whereabouts of the New Englanders who enmass moved on to Ohio in the early 19th century after the Indians had been chased away. (Please, no letters, I didn't do it!)
To Ardell Lynds who can pry loose more obscure information than any three people I know. Her help with the Hartland, ME Woodbury's has been great!
To George Waller, Gordon Woodbury (UK), and Charla Woodbury for super-human effort to resolve and identify the Woodbury's in England.
To Kristine (Leany) Ormond and the Utah LDS, National Woodbury Foundation. Family Reunion(s) and Plaque Dediaction in Beverly, MA. Oct 2002. A Herculean Effort!