William Richmond Workman

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 7 Oct 1875
• Alternate birth: 18 Sep 1876
• Alternate birth: 2 Oct 1876, Fulton County, Kentucky
• Alternate birth: 4 Oct 1876, Fulton, Fulton, Kentucky
• Alternate birth: 1877
• Alternate birth: 1878

Notes:

Sometimes recorded as "William Richard Workman", but the only document we've seen that was filled out in his own hand, his 1918 World War I draft registration card, gives his middle name as "Richmond."

Dates for William Richmond Workman:

Kentucky Birth Records, 1852-1910, on ancestry.com, gives his birth date as 7 October 1875.

Kentucky Birth Records, 1847-1911, on ancestry.com, gives his birth date as 18 Sep 1876. But the handwritten record of 1876 Fulton County births is peculiar. The births are in neither name nor date order, which suggests that this ledger was made well after 1876 by copying a stack of individual records. And while most of the records show the name and birth state of both parents, Wm. Workman's shows only that his father was J. P. Workman.

The 1900 Fulton County, KY census gives his birthdate as "Sept. 1876" and his age as 23.

The 1910 census gives his birth date as "about 1877"; the 1920 census says "abt 1878".

The Hammonds family tree page gives his birthdate as 4 October 1877.

This page, which is primarily about the brief military career of his father, gives his dates as 4 Oct 1877 - 1 Jul 1945. It also calls him "Willie R. Workman."

His Arkansas death certificate gives his birth as 4 Oct 1876 in Fulton, Kentucky.

All of the above notwithstanding, we believe he was born on 4 Oct 1875. First, because that's the date recorded in notes taken by Jeannette Hayden in conversation with his daughter Neville Workman. Second, because that's the date he recorded on his 1918 draft registration document. And third, because the closest census to his birth, the 1880 US census of Fulton County, Kentucky, gives his age in 1880 as 5.

We long assumed that Detroit was his place of death because Patrick's mother recalled, based on conversations with his father's family members, that in later years he came up north and had a small store -- "a little candy store, which could have been a sort of convenience store, in Detroit." Evidently William R.'s wife Kate and his daughter Mildred wouldn't see him, but his daughter Neville would visit him and called him "Papa." A Wm R Workman is listed in the 1928 Detroit city directory, wife given as (Kath), factory worker, home address 6416 Helen Ave apt. B8. This might be him.

But in fact he died in Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas, on 1 July 1945, the date stated on that aforementioned page about his Confederate-soldier father Jefferson Porter Workman. The subject of the Arkansas death certificate is absolutely our guy. "Will R. Workman", born 4 Oct 1876 in Fulton, Kentucky, son of Jeff Workman, occupation: retail grocer (!). The death certificate even specifies that he was buried 3 Jul 1945 in Fulton, Kentucky, which matches up to the Find a Grave page for "William Richard "Willie" Workman" buried in Fairview Cemetery, Fulton, Kentucky, under a group headstone which reads WORKMAN - GRACE HORACE WILLIE JEFF SIS. Our William Workman had siblings named Grace and Horace; his father was named Jefferson; and his mother Narcissa was generally addressed as "Sis."

The death certificate also states that he'd been living in Hot Springs for six years, i.e., since about 1939.

The only false note in the death certificate is that he's described as "widowed" when in fact his wife Kate Jacobs outlived him by nineteen years. But this could easily reflect an imperfect understanding on the part of the death-certificate's informant, one W. C. Boyd. Perhaps William R. outlived a subsequent wife, such as the "Kath" who lived in Detroit with a Wm R Workman in 1928.

William married Katherine "Kate" Jacobs on 12 Nov 1903 in Gibson County, Tennessee. Katherine (daughter of Monroe Marshall Jacobs and Mary Frances "Fannie" Butler) was born on 11 Mar 1887 in Milan, Gibson, Tennessee; died on 4 Jul 1964 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; was buried on 7 Jul 1964 in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She never married. Born slightly cross-eyed, she spent her life (mistakenly) convinced she was unattractive. She worked for the Post Office and was kind.

From Jas Hayden:

"6416 Helen was the apartment where my Grandmother Workman and Aunt Neville ('Sissy', 'Pea-Pa') lived in Detroit....where I spent many happy urban neighborhood hours away from Muddy Shoulders, [but] was in the path of the Edsel Ford Expressway so the entire area remains only in my dreams."

Mildred married James Delbert Hayden on 31 Jan 1935 in St. Gregory, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. James (son of Clarence Eugene "E. C." Hayden and Sarah Frances "Fannie" Newton) was born on 23 Sep 1901 in Owensboro, Daviess, Kentucky; died on 30 Nov 1962 in Warren, Macomb, Michigan; was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield, Oakland, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Jeannette Mary White on 7 Sep 1957 in St. Thomas Aquinas, East Lansing, Ingham, Michigan. Jeannette (daughter of Everett Luke White and Gwendolyn Lottie Gyles) was born on 28 Sep 1935 in Flint, Genesee, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Domenico Papagni. Domenico was born on 11 Jun 1939 in Vieste, Foggia, Puglia, Italy; died on 23 May 2013 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

On marrying the former Teresa Barbara Nielsen, he changed his surname from Hayden to Nielsen Hayden.

Patrick married Teresa Barbara Nielsen on 23 Mar 1979 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Teresa (daughter of Victor Louis Nielsen, Jr. and Barbara Jean Crandall) was born on 21 Mar 1956 in Chamberlain, Brule, South Dakota; was christened on 30 Apr 2000 in St. Augustine, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Benjamin married Laura Marie Wightman on 6 Sep 1985 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. Laura (daughter of Robert Alan Wightman and Joyce Ann Marie Dixon) was born on 30 Jun 1962 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Private). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Private). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Private). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Private). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]