[2] His paternal grandparents were Rebecca (née Ogilvie) Norwood and the merchant Andrew Sickles Norwood,[3] a close friend of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, who was one of the originators and owners of the second line of packet ships between New York and Le Havre.

[1] Norwood was admitted to the bar in New York on April 30, 1867, at the age of twenty-one, practicing for fifty-four years until his retirement in 1921, and was known as a jury lawyer and "expert on cross-examination.

[1] In 1871, Norwood was married to Ethel Josephine Hanbury (1850–1918)[9] in New York City.

Together, Ethel and Carlisle were the parents of:[10] After the death of his first wife, Norwood remarried to Ollie E. Seaman in 1918, who also predeceased him, dying in 1929.

[14] After her death, he resided, with his son Carlisle, at the Prince George Hotel on 28th Street and Fifth Avenue.