Ruth Woodword Swasey 1788

Happy birthday to the mother of Capt. Alexander G. Swasey, who was one of the men who went down to the sea as well as became a Confederate prisoner of the Union during the Civil War.

Ruth Woodword married Alexander G. Swasey Sr, who has a birthday later this month.  They had 12 children, (see below) including 2 sons who happened to marry two sisters, Georgian and Harriet Stearn, about whom I found marriage records from Marblehead, MA.

I haven't been able to find any records about who Ruth Woodword's family was...and it makes me sad that she is just floating at the top of my tree, kind of out on a limb.  Her husband is noted in a history of the Swasey family as "a wood worker by trade, but engaged for many years in command of ship to the coast of China.," and his family tree does go back further.

But more information from the book gives children, which includes my grandmother's (Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers') grandfather, Capt. A. G. Swasey (Jr.) of the Confederacy.  The e-book is Geneology of the Swasey Family by Benjamin Franklin Swasey, 1910.

Ruth Woodword Swasey and Alexander G. Swasey, Sr. had the following:

CHILDREN
1. Delany D., b. at Newport, R. I., May 6, 1808; d. at St. Marys, Ga., July 27, 1833; m. Wil liam A. Creighton of St. Augustine, Fla.
2. Joseph Dean, b. Dec. 9, 1809; d. at Newport, Nov. 16, 1843.
3. Alexander G., Jr., b. April 14, 1812; d. at Charleston, S. C., March 26, 1866.  (**)
4. Sarah Lewellyn, b. May 8, 18 14; d. Sept. 20, 1815.
5. William Pitt, b. Aug. 20, 18 17 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa.; m. Aug. 6, 1843, Georgianna Sterne, b. Dec. 9, 1822. He was a sea captain and lived on Staten Island.
 6. Jerathmel Bowers, a carpenter, b. Jan. 1, 1820; lost at sea in passage to Georgia; m. Jan. 28, 1844, Harriet Elisabeth Sterne of Newport, b. Aug. 3, 1825; d. Jan. 7, 1848, dau. of John and Maria (Thurston) Sterne.
7. Charles A., a carpenter, b. Nov. 27, 1822; worked at his trade in Fall River, Boston and Newport; d. at Tiverton, Mass., May 26, 1882; m. at F. R., Nov. 22, 1842, Jeannette Church, b. in F. R., May 13, 1823; d. Nov. 15, 1895; dau. of Joseph and Hannah (Peckham) Church.  He was 5 feet 6 inches in height, thick set, sandy hair and beard, blue eyes and very vigorous.
8. Mark Antony, b. 1824; d. at Salem, Mass.; m. Sarah Ripley of Fall River.
9. Sarah Lewellen, b. in Newport, R. I., April 11, 1827; d. in New Bedford, Mass., 1853; m. 'n Newport, 1846, Albert Hammett, a lumber merchant, b. in Newport, Nov. 26, 1822, son of Edward and Mary Lyon Hammett.
10. Ruth A., b. May 31, 1828; m. Aug. 5, 1851, Wi liam D. James, a mechanic. He served four years in the Civil War. In 1872 they moved to Visalia, Tulare County, Cal., where he took up a quarter section of land under the soldiers' homestead law. They now reside there ( 1904) .
11. James Henry, b. July 6, 1832 ; d. at St. Augustine, Feb. 2, 1822.
12. Mary Jane, d. 1833.

** NOTE: I think the family which was followed by this author were Yankees (i.e. belonged to the Union in the Civil War,) because no marriage is mentioned, nor children of Capt. Alexander G. Swasey Jr.

Fortunately my grandmother did keep a few records.  But I still don't yet know who Ruth Woodword Swasey's parents were.