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Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island
old sepia photos

Russell Godbey, great-great-great-grandfather of Nancy
Russell Godbey
1800-1888
Russell migrated from western Virginia to Illinois in 1830, stopping for a winter in Indiana so his wife could give birth. In Illinois, Russell took title for the land directly from the government and hired a young man named Abraham Lincoln to survey it for him. Lincoln later went into other work.

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Surname List

GSSWI members have shared the names and migration routes for several hundred surnames that they are researching. We invite you to browse through this list and contact us if you find any overlap with your own research.

link to Acrobat Reader downloadOpen the list of surnames (PDF file, requires Acrobat Reader). The file was updated April 11, 2009.

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link to Acrobat Reader downloadGSSWI members are researching ancestors in several dozen locations around the world. This list provides a summary of many members' geographic areas of interest: list of geographic locations (PDF file, requires Acrobat Reader). The file was updated April 11, 2009.

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Perhaps the Russell Godbey Family, courtesy of Nancy
This photo is believed to be of a young Russell Godbey and his wife and child (compare to a known photo of Russell at left). The photo label is not reliable: Nancy Dickerson Godbey, the first-born of Russell and Elizabeth, was born in 1823, but photography was not invented until the late 1830s. The child could be Russell and Elizabeth's last child, Mary Jane, who was born in 1841. The clothing and hairstyles in the photo are consistent with fashions in the 1840s.