Two Woody family lines in the USA have long been recognized and considered to be distinct, although there has been a suspicion that they may be related. One family traces back to a John Woody, generally referred to as John III, who settled in North Carolina. The other goes back to a William Woody of Virginia. In the following, I offer a speculation about how they may be related, based upon the Woody Family Record. I emphasize that this is purely speculative and offer it solely with the object of inviting comments and ideas about how it may be either confirmed or refuted.
The Woody Family Record (WFR) focuses on the descendants of the two oldest sons of Joseph Woody, B. 1780 in Orange County NC, and his wife, Sarah Thompson. The WFR states that Joseph's father was named John and his grandfather was Joseph, whom I will refer to as Joseph I. No dates are given for these earlier generations. For Joseph I, three sons are listed: John, James and William.
It is widely assumed that the Woodys of the WFR connect to Richard Woody (Richard I) who came to Boston in 1638. There are two problems with this connection. First, no one has proven the connection between John II of Massachusetts, who definitely was a descendant of Richard I, and John III who is supposed to have been born in MA in 1715, but for whom we first have documentation in Maryland in the late 1730s, and then in North Carolina. From the other end, how is our Joseph (B. 1780) connected to John III? John III's son, Joseph, B. 1748 in Baltimore, married a Sarah Thompson. They had a son named Joseph who also married a Sarah Thompson. This must be the connection. I believe that the WFR skipped a generation, combining the two Josephs, father and son, into a single individual. Then our Joseph B. 1780, whom I will call Joseph III, is the son of Joseph II (B. 1748, missing from the WFR), and a grandson of John III.
Another major line of Woodys in the USA is descended from William Woody, who settled in Virginia in the 1730s. Some genealogies go back one more generation to a Joseph Woody B. 1669 (?) in Ireland. Are William's descendants related to the descendants of John III? Perhaps so. By inserting one generation in the WFR, the dates for Joseph III?s grandfather would be consistent with those for John III and William and his great grandfather Joseph I with the Joseph Woody who was William's father . Therefore, it is possible that two of the sons of Joseph I of the WFR (B. before 1700), John and William, were the founders of two of the major Woody lines in America. In that case, neither of these lines is descended from Richard I.