From the sheet music at Baylor University:


I THINK I HEAR A WOODPECKER KNOCKING AT MY FAMILY TREE
Words by Will M. Hough & Frank R. Adams; music by Joseph E. Howard; ©1909.
From the musical comedy, "The Golden Girl."

1. My fami'ly 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 kith
Have been hanged upon that tree.

CHORUS: I think I hear a woodpecker knocking on my fam'ly tree.
While I hear his knock, knock, knock, I think he's on to me.
My fam'ly 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.