Womble Land Records in Edgecombe County, North Carolina

Today I viewed the microfilm I had ordered from the Family History Center in Annandale, VA.  I had ordered a Grantor and Grantee index along with another roll which contained deeds vol. 21-22 1833-1841.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that I'm looking for land records that will give me some insight into what led my paternal grandmother's ancestors to migrate to southwestern Tennessee from Edgecombe County, North Carolina.  Her family's last name was Womble and I spent a few hours searching microfilm for any land records that might explain this.  I'm also looking for information to tell me something of their life in Edgecombe County, maybe who was the father of my grandmother's great-great grandfather, John Womble.  What doesn't help in researching this family line is that it seems as if every male ancestor in her direct line is named John.

I found a lot of interesting land records pertaining to the Womble line.  I may have even discovered the reason behind their move to southwestern Tennessee and further solidifying that the family did indeed migrate there as a group of 21-22 people.

My research into the holdings of Shelby County tells me that there aren't any death records available at that time, so I believe that this is the only record that I will ever find which gives his birth and death dates.  Additionally, it tells me the year when he moved from NC to TN.  After finding this, I believe I'm ready to move my research focus from TN to Edgecombe County, NC this is where the trail of Womble family members becomes the end of the line in my research.

Right now there seems to be plenty to research, but I'm assuming that once I exhaust all documents pertaining to John Womble, his wife Catharine Green(e), and their relatives that this will be my brick wall. Unless of course, I'm able to find obvious proof of who John Womble's father could be.

Today while looking at the Grantor and Grantee index, I found 29 deeds of interest.  11 of these were on the second roll of microfilm that I ordered.  I also found a different spelling of the Womble last name.  It's Wombell; this spelling is similar to a John Wombel that I found listed on a 1790 Edgecombe County, NC federal census schedule, so maybe that person is kin after all?  Also there's a Wombwell family listed in this index, so that's something to look into as well.

My main focus was explaining the family's move to TN.  What motivated them to pack up and move westward?  The other odd thing was that it seemed as though they had possibly moved together, because I found them living in NC in one census and then in another census year they were living in TN.  I know that the censuses are taken every 10 years and it's possible that they migrated west incrementally, but after what I think I just found--I don't think so!

In 1820 or 1821 John Womble died.  In 1835, apparently his widow Catharine Green(e) Womble had her dower given to her from her husband's estate.  I have no idea why it took so long to settle his estate.  From reading the dower, it seems as though the people from the court came out to her property and marked off the land that was allotted to her from the estate that she could live on the rest of her life.

It seems that the various Womble children of John and Catharine had sold possibly what was their share of the land that they'd inherited from their father's estate.  They each sold their land to one man, Weeks Parker.  This went on from 1833-1834.  It's unclear to me if this land that Mr. Parker purchased from the various Womble kids was eventually sold by public auction, but that's something to look into another time.

In February 1836 Warren Womble and another man paid Weeks Parker $120 as bond on the land that should be inherited to the two minor children of John Womble. These children are John Washington Womble and his sister Catherine. They were both under the age of 21 at that time.  John Washington Womble was my grandmother's grandfather.  Based on my research I don't think that the youngest child, Catherine ever traveled to TN with the family.  She may have died in NC or on the move to TN.  I'm not sure what happened with the bond or trust for the two minor Womble children.  It's possible that John Washington Womble sold the land through Mr. Parker or one of his brothers before or after he moved.

On 23 May 1836, Catharine Green(e) Womble sold her land to Weeks Parker by sheriff's auction.  From what I've read about such sales, it may be that she couldn't pay her taxes on the land and was forced to sell it.  Because Catharine was left essentially homeless, it’s my belief that her eldest son, Warren took her in.  When he was sent or offered the minister job in Tennessee then she went with his family.  Possibly, their leaving the area influenced the other family members to move with them. 

Based on my cursory look at these documents, it's my belief that the most of the Womble children sold their inherited land to Weeks Parker and traveled with their brother, Warren to TN.  I also believe that John Washington Womble, the youngest son traveled with his family to TN.  He would've been 20 years old at that time and it's possible that he could’ve added protection and helped in hunting down food for the group.

Patience is virtue especially in genealogical research

Back on the 2nd of this month I ordered two rolls of microfilm from my local Family History Center.  I was told to contact them in about 10 days to see if they had arrived.  It's looking like this will take more like three weeks!  One of the most important things to keep in mind when doing genealogical research is that there's virtually no instant gratification.  If that's what you're looking for while tracing your family lines, find another hobby!

I had been meaning to get these rolls of microfilm for years ever since I read abstracts of them online and in a book at the Library of Congress.  The advice of most genealogy authors is to carefully trace a line one generation at a time.  You're not supposed to jump back and forth from generation to generation or even skip a generation.  To do this you must carefully and painstakingly try to recreate your ancestor's life brick by brick, or rather document by document.

According to my preliminary research, they supposedly contain deeds of the Womble line I'm researching.  This line starts with my paternal grandmother, Laura Virginia Womble Blickensderfer (1902-1975).  Her father was John Albert Womble (1866-1944), who was the son of John Washington Womble (1815-1896).  His father was John Womble (Abt.1756-1820).  I've been working on this line off and on since the early 1990's.  The deeds I'm interested in concern John Washington Womble and his mother, Catharine Green(e) Womble (1778-1843).  I've finally gotten to the point in my research where I feel that I have enough information to finally take a look at these documents.  My hope is that they will piece together the family's migration from Edgecombe County, North Carolina to Western Tennessee.  So, I sit and wait patiently with anticipation for these rolls of microfilm.

You may say to yourself, "I just couldn't just sit back and wait like that, how can someone do that?!"  My answer to you is this, take up another activity while you wait.  Because unless you've got a sizable bankroll, which I don't know anyone who's interested in genealogy who does, you could do some more research on another line or on the same line.

 I prefer to take up another activity while I wait.  In this case, it's reading.  The book I'm reading now is something that my husband brought home from the library for me.  It's a biography titled Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yuente Huang.

So far this has been a great read about the fictional detective and his real-life counterpart.  The book is starting out with the life of Chang Apana, who worked as a police officer for the Honolulu Police Department.  Mr. Huang's introduction says that the book will talk about Officer Apana's life and then go on to talk about Earl Derr Biggers' controversial creation, the fictional Honolulu detective, Charlie Chan.

Mr. Biggers' Charlie Chan character developed into forty plus Hollywood movies.  I always think of these films as being part of the film industry's golden era.  I've never read Biggers' Chan mysteries, so I can't speak about the racial stereotyping of these books.  I have; however, seen a great number of the Charlie Chan movies and see the stereotype that many people find offensive.  Along with this though, I've seen something else which hopefully Mr Huang will touch on his book.  That is the assimilation of immigrants into the American culture.

I always noticed that Mr. Chan's sons, who are featured in most of the Charlie Chan movies I've seen, while they present the stereotypes of the past, their characters seem to be more adapted to the mainstream American culture of that bygone era.  This appears to be to the degree that it irritates Charlie Chan, while the rest of the cast thinks nothing of their Americanized behavior and speech.  His sons seem very much aware of their assimilation into the American culture and don't appear to have an issue with it.  This even gets to the point where in one movie, one of the sons uses his ability to flit back and forth between the stereotypical Chinese roll everyone expects and his everyday American college student self as a way to outwit the movie's villains.  It would be great if this was brought up in a discussion about these films, but everyone seems so focused on the negative stereotypes of these movies and doesn't see the larger picture that Charlie Chan character seems to represent the past and his assimilated children are the future.  I have never seen many films that deal with the subject.  Sure, you can say that a movie like Fiddler on the Roof deals with this subject, but the movie is set in Russia not the United States.  Most on the Charlie Chan movies that I've seen occur on U. S. soil.

Social Networking for Genealogists

Just finished reading Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith.  I've been doing genealogical research off and on since moving to the DC metro area in the 1990's.  I've posted some messages to genealogy newsgroups with very little results but haven't let this discourage me from my research.

A couple of weeks ago I finally subscribed to Rootsweb's Womble mail list, which based on the few posts I've received isn't very active.  While reading Drew Smith's book I was trying to decide the best way to put my genealogical research and knowledge out to the public.  I thought about just making a website on the family I'm currently researching.  Considered forming a Womble group on Facebook, but realized I would only reach those people that are all ready on Facebook.

This seemed to be the best solution and unfortunately I can't promise that my postings will only be on genealogy or my research.  My plan is to have a website for the Womble family that will include the research I've done on them along with photos and sources this will eventually be linked to this blog hopefully one day in the future.