Following a lead on Martin Woodruff

   I found Martin Woodruff's death noted in the registry at the

Address is 334 Maple Ave.

Wisconsin Historical Society.  It lists his mother's name as Anna and his wife's name as Anna.  It also gives his residence as 344 Maple Ave. in Green Bay, Wi.  This is the first actual document, besides newspapers, that I've found for Martin. I've searched and searched the census records and haven't been able to locate him.  So it's nice to find an address.  Perhaps if I search the city directory for Green Bay at that time, I can find him that way.

The location of Martin Woodruff's grave.

Also, Martin kept popping up in the Find-a Grave database for the Woodlawn Cemetery in Green Bay.  According to a friendly Find-a-Grave user local to the area, there is no grave marker for Martin Woodruff, but the designated spot is shared with a tombstone for the Johnson family.  What is his connection to the Johnsons?  Are they relatives?

1898 Green Bay City Directory, W

     After scouring the Green Bay city directory from 1898, I found no mention of Martin Woodruff.  I decided to see if I could find a neighbor of Martin Woodruff.  I had a sneaking suspicion that he was in the census somewhere, but something was preventing me from easily searching for him by name.  Perhaps his name was misspelled, or the transcriber made an error.  So I started flipping through the pages of the directory for anyone living on Maple Ave, who would have been on the same block.

1898 Green Bay City Directory, T

It didn't take me long to stumble across a Catherine Tiernan at 339 Maple Ave.  She would have been a close neighbor to the Woodruffs at 334 Maple Ave, possibly right next door.  I then searched through the 1880 Census a second time, looking for her name instead.  I found her right away and in the lines right above her name I found Martin Woodruff!

1880 Census, Ft Howard, Green Bay

In the 1880 Census, Martin is living in the Gravy household.  He's listed as the father-in-law to John Gravy, who is living with his wife Sophia, children Anna and John, along with a Frank Woodruff, listed as the brother-in-law.  The census taker's handwriting is hard to read, and the transcriber entered Martin and Frank's last name as Wartsop in the database, which is why it never appeared when I searched Woodruff. This is such an important discovery!  I had no clue before this that Mary Woodruff  had any siblings.  She was not the only child.  Sophia and Frank both list their birthplaces as Bohemia, so they must have all traveled together to the US in 1854.  The 1880 census lists the street as Cherry St, not Maple Ave.  I'm going to assume the street name was changed at some point between 1880 and 1898.  But armed with this knowledge, I double checked the 1898 city directory to look for the Gravy family.

1898 City Directory Ft Howard, Green Bay, G

Now, I have another mystery.  John Gravy is listed at 331 N Maple av, not at 334 Maple av.
Instead of Sophia Gravy, it lists Josephine Gravy, widowed.  Is this the same woman?  Is Sophia a nickname for Josephine?