Ida May Woodley, my great-grandmother

They are a fine looking bunch, aren’t they!

These are the Woodley’s, my ancestors on my mother’s side. The parents sitting in the centre of this photo are William Woodley and the fearsome matriarch (according to my mother), Charlotte Regina Woodley (nee Francis). This photo was taken prior to 1882. We know that since the last member of the family, Eva, is not there. She was born in 1884.

Let me introduce you to the children in the photo. They are:

Top row: James, Henry Francis, Ida May (my great-grandmother)

Middle row with their parents: Edith Mabel, William (they always seemed to name a child after the parents which makes genealogy rather difficult at times)

Bottom: Charlotte (called Lottie by the family)

William and Charlotte (the parents) were both born in 1842 in Ontario, but their parents were immigrants from England. Their gravestone is located in Bethesda Cemetery in a rural area called Taunton, northeast of Oshawa, and many of the Woodley clan are buried there. We used to visit the cemetery regularly when I was young, especially after 1960 when my father was also buried there.

So I descend from good old British stock on my mother’s side, and Mennonite stock via Russia on my father’s side. But that’s a story for another day!

Ida May

I want to tell you about Ida May, at least as much as I know about her. Her story is probably similar to that of a number of young women of her time, but since she is my great-grandmother, it is special to me.

The Woodley family lived in Cartwright Township in the Durham West district of Ontario. A young man from England breezed into Ida May’s life around the time that she was 15 years old and captured her attention. William Henry Butteris was 13 years older than her, and must have swept her off her feet. A daughter, Eva May, was born to them on Nov. 13, 1887 and they were married on Jan. 1, 1888, just a few days before her 16th birthday.

My mother couldn’t tell me much about William Henry, and the Woodley family was pretty close-mouthed about him. I sensed there was a dark cloud hanging over his name whenever it was mentioned. Recently I did some historical family research and found records online that indicated he was born in the south of England in Alverstoke, near Gosport. He may have arrived in Canada in 1881 as a 21 year old on the Moravian, a ship traveling from Liverpool and Londonderry according to the immigration records I found.

On May 2, 1889 a second child was born to Ida May and William Henry Butteris, a son named Charles Franklin – my grandfather. At this point the story takes a sad turn. Ida May died on May 20 just a few days after the birth. Her death certificate indicates that she died of an abcess of the liver that she had had for 3 weeks, probably a complication from childbirth.

According to the 1891 Census, William Henry and the 2 children were living with Ida May’s parents, William and Charlotte. That must have made for a lively household with six remaining children of their own plus two grandchildren!

However, the next development seems to give an indication why the Woodley family didn’t speak much about William Henry Butteris. Not too long after that 1891 census, he must have moved out of the house leaving the children behind. My mother told me that they eventually heard he was living in Bowmanville, Ontario.

What happened to William Henry?

Records show that on Oct. 5, 1892, William Henry Butteris married Dorothy Ann Westlake in Darlington County which is where Bowmanville is located.

Interestingly, Dorothy Westlake died in 1896 a few days after the birth of their son. Their daughter, born 3 years earlier, had died at 3 months of age. Quite a sad life William Henry must have had.

At some point, the surname Butteris was dropped from the Woodley family records. In later census files, my grandfather is shown as Charles Franklin Woodley, and his sister as Eva May Woodley. From this time on, all their descendants use the surname Woodley.

In 1900 William Henry married Elizabeth Kelley (nee Manes) in Oshawa. My search of records for Elizabeth has not produced a lot of information about her, but a 1921 census shows that she and William were living in Oshawa in a house owned by Elizabeth’s brother.

I am still searching for more records, but I believe William Henry died in 1945 at the age of 86 in Oshawa – interestingly, a city my mother, sister and I moved to in 1960. Life goes in circles?