Womble Marriage Records in Edgecombe County, NC

Years ago, back in 2005 I had found in a book, North Carolina Marriage Records, Edgecombe County, North Carolina 1760-1868 by Frances T. Ingmire at the Library of Congress.  It contained marriage records for many of John Womble’s children. 

 

I noted down the information, but never actually went in search of the actual records.  The reason being was that I wanted to feel that I had researched everything else about the family before going back that far.  So in a sense, I wanted to feel comfortable with the research I had already done before tackling John and his son, John Washington Womble’s siblings’ lives.

In genealogy it very important to work only with original records, when available.  I looked at what marriage records were available on microfilm through the Family HistoryLibrary.  What I was really hoping to find was a marriage record for John Womble and Catharine Green(e).  I ordered the microfilm titled Marriage Bonds, ca 1741-ca 1868 N-W, Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

The film arrived and I searched first for John Womble and Catharine Green(e) or even any other woman, but he wasn’t listed.  I did find marriage bonds for some of his children.  John’s daughter, Celia’s marriage bond to Joshua Sory on 17 Aug. 1830 was found.  Son, Enos Womble bond to Lucinda Ford dated 31 May 1854.  As well as, Jacob Womble to Nancy Fryar on 2 Feb 1830. 

There was a marriage bond for an Edwin Womble to Betsy Crisp on 25 Aug. 1826.  I have no idea if he's some unknown relation to John Womble, but I noted this down anyway.  You never know when random bits of information will prove useful later in your research.  Lastly, there were all of Nathaniel Womble’s marriages.  Nathaniel was married four times in Edgecombe County.  My belief is that his wives kept dying on him, so that’s why he married so often.  His first marriage was to Martha Friar on 3 Dec. 1823.  Next, he married Celia Sorrell on 9 Jan. 1823 and then Martha Taylor on 13 July 1857.  His last wife was Elizabeth Etheridge who he married on 2 May 1864.

I couldn’t find marriage bonds for John's daughter, Mary Ann Womble who married Elisha Proctor in ca 1819.  It’s possible that they married in another county.  There wasn’t a bond for either for her sister, Finetta Womble’s marriage to Willie Lee on 27 Dec. 1826. 

John Womble and Catharine Green(e)’s oldest son, Warren married twice in North Carolina.  His first wife, according to my information was Mary Anderson and they married in 1821 in Wake County.  She died within a year and he married again.  His second marriage was in Nash County to Mary McDade on 22 Oct. 1832.

I also couldn’t find the marriage bond for Warren’s younger brother, Benjamin F. who married Mary McDade’s sister, Silana in abt. 1831. 

I haven’t given up hope of finding John and Catharine Womble’s marriage bond.  I did manage to find out that there’s on index to marriage bonds filed in the North Carolina State Archives available on microfiche through the Family History Library.  It seems quite extensive and I’m very hopeful that I will at last find this vital document.  If not there still a chance that I may be able to at least locate more marriage bonds for John and Catharine’s children.

Further Forays into the Social Networking Universe

In a previous post, I talked about my goal of joining various hobby oriented social networks that interest me. I spent several hours during one weekend joining those groups and here are my reviews and comments of those sites.

The first hobby oriented social network I joined was Ravelry. This is a social network for people who either knit or crochet. So far, I haven't been able to find anything to really criticize about the site. Other than while their photo uploading function is wonderful, and even includes a cool centering feature, please make sure the photo you upload is oriented the correct way. The reason is, because unlike with Facebook, which allows you to rotate the photos you've uploaded, Ravelry doesn't.

Ravelry also contains a fabulous notebook for you to use. The notebook is where you can store photos of yarn that are in your stash, which is definitely something that any knitter has. Needles and crochet hooks can be kept track of in the notebook, as well as projects you're currently working on or are planning to start. The project function in the notebook is great because again you can add photos, update your progress, make comments, and share this project with others on Ravelry . In the project function, you can include all information you could think of that would pertain to working a particular project. There is a space to indicate the type of yarn and where you bought it from and it's cost, needle size, gauge, and size that the item will be made in. The list goes on.

Then there's the multitude of groups on Ravelry . I think I joined about 3 on my first visit. The groups are wonderful and at least with my experience have given me the opportunity to get together with the group's members in person, which I feel is most important with social networks. Why join a social network if you're not planning on conversing with actual people and especially in person?!

The next social network I joined was Stitcherie. I have done needlework since grade school. This is a social network for; you guessed it, people who do cross-stitch or needlepoint. The site's purpose may also apply to other types of threaded needlework such as crewel embroidery-I'm not sure.

My main gripe with the site is that the registration process isn't compatible with the Opera browser I use. Once I switched browsers everything worked fine, but as with anything that's not compatible with Opera; it irritated me.

On Stitcherie , I can't add my future projects or add items in my stash to my page, either. What I can do is upload pics of my projects and in the captions section of these images include pertinent information on these projects.

It doesn't make sense to me about the lack of a stash function or future/current projects function on this site, since like knitters; people who do any kind of embroidery have a stash. Hopefully, the powers that be on the site will read my post and add that as a function.

The site only has six groups and none of these were groups in my area.  I had been hoping to find a group of cross-stitchers or at least people who did embroidery so we could stitch together, but no.  Maybe I should try starting one?

The upside of the Stitcherie is that not too long after posting pictures of my finished projects, I had received many wonderful compliments on my needlework skills. So, I do think that's definitely a bonus that the people are so friendly. No one can complain about an ego boost.

Another hobby of mine is miniatures. This is a hobby that I've been interested in since I was 12. At one time, I even worked in a dollhouse shop. The next network I joined was the mini nook, which is devoted to the world of miniatures.

I didn't see any groups on this site, so that kind of stunk.  However, if the function is there I should at least start one.


The downsides to this site are similar to those with Stitcherie and even Ravelry in regards to adding photos. The pictures can't be centered and/or rotated once they've been added to the site. Also when you upload the images into an album, you need to take care to only add pictures that are a certain file size. Pictures that are too large will not be added to your album, and this is not made clear immediately. The reason being is that if you're anything like me when uploading pictures, I tend to click the upload button and then go off and do something else. Instead of sitting and watching the site upload my picture(s). Several times I saw a sentence flash across the screen. However, I wasn't paying attention, and then wondered, why aren't all of the pics I uploaded in my album? It took a couple of times of going through the uploading process of these pictures with huge file sizes for me to finally realize why they weren't being added.

A further gripe with the album function on this site is that the order of the images in the albums can't be changed, so you need to be very careful when you chose the order in which to add any images to an album. I added two albums of the same house project and then finally realized afterwards that I should have added them in reverse order because I couldn't change their order once they were uploaded.

The next social network I joined was Genealogy Wise. The site is devoted to people interested in genealogy. This social network had a bit more convoluted registration process. I was able to create an account on the site, but was unable to do anything with it for the better part of a day. This was even after confirming my email address. The reason being was that the powers that be on the site needed to approve my membership.

I have a funny gripe with this site's photo adding and manipulation function. After adding my profile picture, I found that the top part of my head was clipped off. This made me appear to have been hit on the head with an anvil. I tried to adjust the centering and the size of the photo I added, but to no avail. Finally I tried another solution, I added another picture of myself and thankfully wasn't stricken with the head clipping 'feature'.

Unfortunately, unless more functions are added to this social network, I don't see its usefulness to me. I had joined the network thinking that I would be able to upload some of the genealogical data I've collected. Maybe even upload family groups to the site that would be visible to people researching that surname? However, the only useful function I've found is creating a group, which was one of the first things I did. I created a Womble surname group, so if you happen to be researching that family please stop by and join my Genealogy Wise group.

An interesting note is that I did receive a comment from a Genealogy Wise member. I should probably follow up on this because you never know who might know someone or something that could help in furthering your genealogical research.

Google+  is a new social network and is still in it's beta stage.  I was able to join this after finagling an invite from a high school friend.  I tried looking up various people I knew, but so far my only contact is my high school friend.  At my knitting group, it was suggested that I look for the knitters that are using it.  So I definitely have to give that a try!

Gloria Vanderbilt Embroidered, Crocheted Afghan

My current project is an embroidered, crocheted afghan from McCall’s Do-It-Yourself-Guide Gloria Vanderbilt Designs for your Home magazine, Holiday 1975 edition.

I had always wanted to make this afghan.  The unique zigzagged edge fascinated me, so I held onto this magazine for years.  In the aftermath of 9/11, I had heard horrendous stories of the growing prejudice against Muslim and Afghanistan people.  This bothered me.  This feeling grew as I saw French fries being called Freedom Fries and the small French bread loaves that once were sold at my local grocery store as ‘French Twins’ suddenly disappeared.  It made me wonder if those knitted or crocheted blankets called afghans would disappear as well.

I was determined to wage a silent protest against what I viewed as the growing discrimination of the Afghan people by starting work on the afghan that I had long planned to make.  The post 9/11-world was the right time to begin such a project. 

I had recently learned that my favorite local needlework store was going out of business.  Its location in the Alley Shops in the Crystal City Underground in Arlington, VA, which is close to the Pentagon didn’t help it weather the growing fear of Washingtonians of another similar attack occurring so the little shop was doomed.

I purchased most of the yarn at Nimble Needles in 2002 and the necessary Afghan hook that same year from Mary Maxim.  The rest of the yarn needed was bought at Michaels.  

In February 2002, I began crocheting each of the strips.  The afghan is made up of 16 strips that are done in Tunisian crochet.  Each of the squares is 19 ribs high and 20 vertical bars wide. 

As you can see from the above picture, the magazine only shows part of the placement of the 13 flowered motifs.  Thankfully, there is a diagram showing the arrangement of colored squares.  As I worked, I began to think about how to create the same placement of the motifs to match the picture.  I made my own diagram on the computer and realized that I could use what motifs were visible in the picture as a guide and then place the rest in a random pattern.  In the end, I believe that I was successful.

During 2009, I finished crocheting all of the strips.  Next in the afghan’s directions was to edge each of the strips with black yarn. 

I have a confession to make here and it’s somewhat off-topic, I really don’t know much about crocheting.  My maternal grandma taught me the very rudimentary basics of it during a summer visit.  All I really know are making a chain and single crochet.  My grandma crocheted afghans for each of her grandchildren.  I was very interested in learning the craft, but grandma wasn’t interested in teaching me more than what she did.  I never understood why, but it's possible that she didn’t have the patience.  During most of her visits, she was always crocheting something, usually an afghan made up of granny squares.  I can remember sitting and trying to see what exactly she was doing with the yarn so that I could somehow learn how she made them.  I asked her once and all she said was, “I just do the stitch I do”.

I eventually got a magazine and did crochet one granny square.  Later, I learned about such things as double and half double crochet, but honestly know nothing about crocheting afghans.  Also, I haven’t been able to internalize the process like with crocheting chains and single crochet.  So when it came to edging the strips, there was a lot of ripping out the edging and starting again.  The afghans that grandma made had edges that were flat against the edges of the afghan.  Finally, somehow I was able to get the edging the way I felt it should look.  It seemed that when I first began, the edging I was doing was coming out so that it stood up perpendicular to the strip’s edge.

Once the edging was completed, I could begin embroidering each of the 16 strips.  I realized as began that I would have to come up with color combinations for each motif as well.  This color combination according to the picture in the magazine changed with each use.  I saw that I would have to plan out the color combinations of every motif for each row as I worked.

Currently I've finished embroidering the 8^th row, so I’m halfway through with the embroidery.  My goal is to have the afghan finished by the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.  I’m not sure if I’ll reach it, but I’m eager to at least try.  Because it's always better to try something and fail than to have never begun at all.  

The Social Networking Universe

In the July 10th Washington Post was an article about social networks geared towards particular hobbies.  The article specifically mentioned the knitting social network, Raverly.  Being a knitter, I of course joined Ravelry's network and then started a search of other social networks that were focused on some of my hobbies.  By performing a quick Google search, I was able to find social networks on miniatures and cross-stitch.

I've had only limited success with the social networking world leading to real life friendships, but I haven't given up hope.  Part of my interest in joining a social network was to hopefully widen my friends in the genealogy world.  This is a new career path for me and I know very few people in that community.  I've been a member of Facebook since the late summer of 2010 and have connected with people from every city I've ever lived in. Only recently have I added to my genealogy network.  My goal is to spend time joining each type of hobby oriented social network that interests me as a way to stay current in those communities and hopefully meet some new friends.

In about 2003-2004, I had been a member of the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch.  This group used to meet in the Clarendon area.  I really enjoyed meeting up with them and knitting.  In 2005, I got a new job that required me to work in the evenings.  Unfortunately, my Monday evenings with the Stitch 'n Bitch ladies had to go.  In 2010, I was offered a position in my current non-profit job.  Thankfully, the job offers regular M-F office hours so my evenings and weekends are now free for me to spend as I choose.  After joining Facebook, I tried to locate my Stitch 'n Bitch friends, but to no avail.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the DC metro area, the transient nature of its citizens is a well known and accepted fact of life for us Washingtonians.

One of Stitch 'n Bitch members managed the now defunct Knit Happens shop in Alexandria, VA.  I believe that the shop closed in August of 2010.  Also, I had read on a local yarn shop's Facebook page that the members of the Stitch 'n Bitch stopped getting together.  By some odd coincidence, while I had other commitments on Monday night maybe they did too.  After all, life sometimes does intervene in different ways for everyone.

Currently, I'm working on an afghan.  I started around 2002 or so and have completed crocheting it.  The afghan is crocheted strips of squares and each square is to be embroidered with a different flowered motif.  I'm about halfway through with the embroidery and am looking to finish it by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  That in itself is another blog post.  Since my goal is beginning to loom, I've been looking for another knitting group to meet up with so that I can stay motivated to finish by my set goal.

Through the Ravelry site, thankfully I was able to come in contact with a similar knitting group.  I contacted them and told them what I was working on and that I was interested in joining them in their sessions.  They were very open to me joining them; even though, what I'm working on isn't technically knitting or even crochet at this point.   

I met with the group on Tuesday night and told them about my search for the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group.  They knew nothing about them personally.  I think someone may have heard of them, but they did kindly tell me about a group who met at the same location on Monday nights.

So now, I have to find out if the group they mentioned are my Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group!