| Notes |
- Sometimes recorded as "William Richard Workman", but the only document we have 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:
His birthdate varies quite a bit in the records.
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, which is primarily about his father, gives his dates as 4 Oct 1877 - 1 Jul 1945. It also calls him "Willie R. Workman."
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 as 5.
We've put Detroit down as his place of death because Patrick's mother recollects, 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 his 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. There is also a Richard Workman listed in the 1940 US Federal census as living at 1012 Clay St. in Detroit, born in Kentucky, estimated birth date "abt 1877", listed as "married" but evidently living alone. His occupation is given as "salesman" for a "supply shop"; he is shown as self-employed; he worked all 52 weeks of 1939, and he worked an eye-popping 90 hours in the week of March 24-30, 1940. (This is an actual question in the 1940 census.) All for an income of $300 a year. This certainly could be our William Richmond Workman.
(1012 Clay Street is about a half-mile southeast of the GM Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly. The street today is at least half composed of vacant lots; there is no building standing at number 1012, but it's clear that it was never an affluent area.)
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There is a Find a Grave page for William Richard "Willie" Workman, who would appear to be our William Richmond Workman. There is no genealogical information shown -- neither parents, nor spouse, nor children -- and the only date shown is a birthdate of 1876. But it does claim that he's buried in Fairview Cemetery, Fulton, Kentucky, and it shows a 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." So wherever and whenever he died, it seems likely that he is buried here.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1875 - 1945 (69 years)
[5, 6] 
