Robert D. Goodman – 1799 – 1845

of Wilson County TN

Robert D. Goodman, was born ca 1799 in Wilson Co., TN, and lived his entire life there. He married Martha J. Richardson in Wilson Co., TN on 20 Feb 1820, and died sometime before 6 Aug 1845 in Wilson Co., TN.

His son Amos B. Goodman and all of his other children with Martha Richardson were also born in Wilson Co., TN. None of them were born in Casey Co., KY, where Amos B. Goodman and his family did not remove to until sometime after his father’s death in 1845.

Amos B. Goodman, his sister Elizabeth Goodman, two of his brothers, William C. (Carroll) Goodman and John J.  (John James?) Goodman, and one of his uncles, Stephen Goodman, were among the purchasers named as being at Robert D. Goodman’s estate sale in Wilson Co., TN, as reported to the Wilson Co. Court on October 8, 1845 (Wilson Co TN Wills and Inventories 1843-1848, p. 206, as transcribed by me from microfilm on a visit to the Wilson County Library].

About 1859/60, Amos B. Goodman’s two brothers, John J. Goodman and William Carrol Goodman, along with their widowed mother, Martha J. Goodman, removed to Lauderdale Co., AL. There they are found on the same page of the 1860 census in Lauderdale county, AL, as follows:

Carrol Goodman b. 1829 Tennessee Male (RG: William Carrol Goodman, s/o Robert D. Goodman dec’d of Wilson Co., TN)
William H Goodman b. 1853 Tennessee Male
Matilda J Goodman b. 1855 Tennessee Female
Martha J Goodman b. 1796 Kentucky Female (RG: Martha Richardson, widow of Robert D. Goodman, dec’d, of Wilson Co., TN)

John Goodman b. 1825 Tennessee Male (John J. Goodman, s/o Robert D. Goodman, dec’d of Wilson Co., TN)
Elizabeth Goodman b. 1825 Alabama Female (RG: maiden name Hill, married John Goodman 1844 in Lauderdale Co., AL)
Robert D Goodman b. 1844 Tennessee Male
Martha J Goodman b. 1848 Tennessee Female
Judea N Goodman b. 1851 Tennessee Female
Ansel Arthur Goodman b. 1852 Tennessee Male
James S Goodman b. 1853 Tennessee Male
Nancy C Goodman b. 1856 Tennessee Female
John S Goodman b. 1858 Tennessee Male

John J. and Elizabeth Goodman and family are later found in District 8, Wayne Co., TN in the 1870 and 1880 census.

Some of the names in this family are traditional and revealing.
John James Goodman b ca 1750 in Hanover Co., VA or Lunenburg Co, VA was the father of:
Robert Goodman Sr. b. 1775 in Bedford VA and later of Wilson Co., TN,
My ancestor Amos I. Goodman b 1782 in Bedford Co, VA and later of Greene and Blount Co., TN, then Barren/Hart Co., KY, the first known Goodman with the Amos given name,
Martha Goodman b. ca 1770 in Bedford VA, and m. Matthias Reynolds in Bedford Co., VA in 1788 and they soon removed to Barren/Hart Co., KY,
Stephen Goodman, b 1777 in Bedford VA and later of Barren/Hart Co., KY
Arthur Goodman b ca 1787 in Bedford VA, later of Hart and Greyson Co, KY and who had son Amos James Goodman,
John Goodman b 1772, who came with his father John James Goodman and brother Robert Goodman, then just 16 years old, to Wilson Co, TN about 1790/91, leaving the rest of the family in Greene Co., TN with Richardson relatives. [Greene Co. TN Fall Court, 1790]

John Goodman b 1772 did not stay in Wilson Co. long, and was in Oglethorpe Co., GA by 1794 [Oglethorpe Co Delinquent Taxpayers List]. According to his family bible record, he married three times and had at least 8 children, including by 3rd wife Sarah Martin, Robert Hope Goodman, b. 21 Feb 1819 in Madison Co., GA. Robert Hope Goodman’s letter of 1873 to his daughter Florence has survived. That letter includes a brief history of the Goodman family, tying it to the prominent Goodman plantation owners of Hanover Co, VA in the early to mid 1700s, and before that to the York Co., VA area in the late 1600s. His letter also mentions Ansel Goodman, a Rev War soldier with Daniel Boone at Boonesborough and brother of Robert Hope Goodman’s grandfather John James Goodman, and namesake of the several Ansel/Anselm names in later generations of both of these brothers,including my 3rd great-grandfather Anselm Goodman, b 1802 in Greene Co., TN, son of Amos I. Goodman and his 1st wife, Sarah Conway.

If DNA tests were done on male descendants of any of these Goodman lines, the results should very closely match mine and other known descendants of John James or Ansel Goodman who have also been tested by FamilyTree DNA, and more recently by Ancestry DNA and 23andMe.