Research recap and where I’m headed part 1

My last blog post was posted nearly towards the end of what had been an incredibly hot summer.  I had returned from the FGS conference in Ft. Wayne, IN where I had found what I believe to be the ‘missing’ Womble child that died during the Civil War and was buried in a cemetery in Nashville, TN. 

After finding this I wasn’t able to make any further headway with researching the family during the Civil War.  I wasn’t sure exactly how to obtain the court records for Robert Carter being accused of stealing a coat from H F Myers’ store.  I was curious as to what had happened with the land that the Womble family was living on in Hardin County, TN when the war started.  Since I found pretty good evidence that John brought his family with him to Nashville during the Civil War, I wondered if they had returned to that same land after the war ended.  While in Ft. Wayne I talked with people about what I had found out about the family’s experiences during the Civil War and asked how I could find out if they sold the land before leaving for Nashville or if it was more likely that they just never returned to Hardin after the war.

There is the possibility that the family did in fact return to Hardin after the war because the social security application of my great grandfather Albert Womble’s birth indicates that he was born there in 1866.  However, his personal papers seem to suggest that towards the end of his life he was trying to locate his birth record and that supposedly he had learned that it may have been on file in Nashville. 

It could also be that those notes I found of Albert trying to locate proof of when he was born are from when social security came into existence and he could’ve been concerned about trying to provide documentation of his birth so that he could begin receiving social security benefits.  I think it more likely that he wanted to obtain documentation because I found delayed birth certificates for his sister, Maude and brother, Ernest.

The information from Albert’s social security application about his birthplace and date is Albert’s own knowledge.  Even though, he was obviously present at his birth there’s no way he could’ve known the date or where he was.  Only his mother would’ve known that information and presumably Albert’s father was present at the birth.

So when I asked about how I could find out if the Womble family returned to Hardin after the war, it was suggested that I look at tax records.  I did a search on FamilySearch.org of available microfilms and then looked to see what was available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.  Nothing appeared to be available to me for Hardin County and I’m not and wasn’t at the time able to travel to Hardin to search for the records in the county courthouse. My attempt to get a book via interlibrary loan about the Civil War and post war life in Hardin County titled, No Man's Land: the Civil War and reconstruction in Hardin County, by Tony Hays didn’t pan out because it’s considered a reference book and so not available for interlibrary loan, so that part of my research project ended.

Then I began to think about attempting to hammer down the details of the family’s life in Hardeman County, Tennessee.  I knew from census records both population schedules and agriculture and Nashville city directories that they lived in Hardeman for awhile moved back to Nashville and then a short time later returned to Hardman.  They lived there for about ten years before relocating back to Nashville and both John Washington Womble and his wife, Rhoda Caroline died there in the city where they had married at the end of the Civil War.

My thinking with trying to learn more about the family’s Hardeman years was that if I was able to pinpoint when they arrived there then I could better figure out when exactly did they leave Nashville and did they ever return to Hardin as Albert’s social security application states.

In September 2013, I read a great article in the latest issue of the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society’s Newsletter Westward into Nebraska. In it was an article about the Panic of 1873.  The article didn’t mention any Wombles or John Washington Womble, but it got me thinking about the land that he sold in December 1873.  The more I thought about that land the more I realized that I would have to transcribe the deed to figure out what was going on and what John W. Womble’s plans were.  In the meantime, I ordered tax records for Hardeman County from the Family History Library for the years 1876-1880.

While waiting for the microfilm to arrive, I transcribed the deed where John Washington Womble sells 83 acres of land to P J Tranum on 29 December 1873.  I had read through this deed many times and thought that I completely understood it; however, it wasn’t until I transcribed it that I saw what was really going on. 

J W Womble deed 83 acres to P J Tranum

The first page of the deed states that J W Womble is selling for $930 83 acres of land to P J Tranum.  $600 is paid to J W Womble upfront and 12 months credit is given to Tranum for the $330.  So presumably, P J Tranum needed to pay the remaining money to my ancestor either within or after one years time.

I had thought in the past that John W went off to Nashville to work while his family lived in Hardman to work the farm and when his employment prospects failed he returned home before moving with the whole family to Nashville about ten years later.  However, it seemed clearer that he was actually leaving Hardeman and his family would be going with him to Nashville.  The article in Westward into Nebraska about the Panic of 1873 gave me the idea that there was a bit more to John’s land transaction with P J and that was that by accepting part of the money upfront and allowing the balance to be paid after a year suggests to me that John W Womble wasn’t sure how easily he could find a job in Nashville or even once he found a job-if he could hold onto it.

The confusion of John W Womble’s moving to Hardeman to Nashville and back to Hardeman comes in when I begin looking at tax records and combine those findings with road orders.  If I took those records at face value, it would appear that John never left Hardeman County at all and never moved away to Nashville for a few years before returning to stay on in Hardeman for another ten years.

My suspicion was that I was dealing with multiple people with similar names that were listed in the tax records.  In order to make sure that’s what I was dealing with I wound up ordering and viewing tax records from 1865-1880.