John William, Jack and Catherine's father, was my great grandfather. Jack was his youngest child and Jack's second son Arthur was my father. Jack died when my father was a young child, and my grandmother Jack's wife Alice married again. I don't think my father knew much about his father's family and my grandmother Alice didn't like people knowing she had been married before! I was also born in December 1950 so we are cousins of some sort but no good at calculating second, third, removed etc. if you look at the Woodburn family tree on ancestry that might help you, I think my sister has made it a public tree so you should be able to view it.
I can't really tell you much more about John William and his wife Catherine that hasn't already been said on this site. He isn't always consistent about where he was born ie Ireland/London. Catherine always says she was born in Nova Scotia but I've never been able to trace her birth there, but I think that's probably because I don't know where to look. I think she's likely to have Irish ancestry, or even maybe Scottish. The name Harper certainly appears in both countries. Once married they then travelled with the army to many parts of the world, the West Indies first, where a couple of the eldest children were born. It's the Irish Ancestry that's so difficult to trace. I think Mallow, Doneraile and Castlepooke are all significant and if you Google Heaffey and Castlepooke in 1833 you should be able to read about the murders and trial. It's very interesting I don't know if they are direct ancestors of ours but I do think we are related to them. Heaffey is not a popular name in Cork where currently they seem to be know as the Cork Mafia! When we went there so taxi driver told us he wouldn't have picked us up if he had known that was our name! He was serious!
I really don't hold much hope of tracing the family back before the marriage of Catherine and John William in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but new records are added all the time so who knows maybe one day. Good luck and thanks for the information.
Di
Ps on Norah's workhouse records there were 2 children mentioned will have to look again but I think they had different names from the 3 you mentioned. I've also found Catherine's death record.