From the musical “The Golden Girl”, 1909.
Words by Hough & Adams.
Music by Joseph E. Howard.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. My family tree is an awful sight to see
For the bark is all worn bare
It’s a busted stump which is mostly punk
And the worms are nesting there
I’d point with pride to the ones who died
In my genealogy
But the fact is this, almost all my kin and kitch
Have been hanged upon that tree
Chorus:
I think I hear a woodpecker
Knocking on my family tree
While I hear the knock, knock, knock
I think he’s on to me
My family did a whole lot of things
That ain’t in history
But when he gets free with my ancestry
He’s knocking me
2. My father Dan was a literary man
He lived by and in the pen
When he got away it was safe to say
He would soon be back again
My Uncle Frank for his work in a bank
By the police was in demand
While my cousin Roy was an awful handy boy
With a stocking full of sand