I had often heard that my paternal great grandfather, Overton Roy Woodfork, and his family were from Spotsylvania County, VA. My family is very private, so I have not been able to rely on much oral history for my research. Up until 2004, all of my research for Overton and his family had been focused in Spotsylvania County, VA and was very unsuccessful. The Right to Privacy Act requires a 72-year waiting period (the average human life span) before the census can be released to the public. The 1930 census was made available to the public in 2002.
In the summer of 2004, I searched the 1930 census for the first time and discovered Overton Woodfork living in the Port Royal District of Caroline County, VA with his brother Willie and Willie's family. This information, along with the understanding that the surname is spelled many different ways (Woolfolk, Woodfolk, Woodfork etc), was the key that I needed to open the door on a floodgate of information on my Woodfork ancestors. Using the census, I learned that Overton’s parents were William and Louisa Woolfolk and in addition to his brother Willie, he had four sisters: Eliza, Susan, Emma and Lucy Jane. The spelling of the Woolfolk surname changed over the years. The descendants of William "Willie" Woolfolk spell their last name Woodfolk. The descendants of Overton Woolfolk spell their last name Woodfork. William and Louisa’s daughters married into the Ellis, Hawkins and Waugh families.
Shakespeare
My Aunt told me that her father often said the family was related to the Shakespeare family. However, she never knew how the families were related. Through a conversation with a new found cousin who is the granddaughter of Susan Woolfolk Waugh and additional research, I was able to discover that Louisa Woolfolk, the wife of Wilie Woolfolk was the key to the Woolfolk/Shakespeare connection.