Womble, Wamble, and Wormble?!

So, if you’re a regular reader of my blog you may know that I’ve been trying to learn more about the Womble family’s Civil War experience.  The family story is that John Washington Womble spent the Civil War working in Nashville, Tennessee as a tailor and left his children to fend for themselves in Hardin County, Tennessee.  I’ve already reported about finding an interment record for who may possibly be his first wife, Mary Jane in the Nashville City Cemetery.  I also located what I believe to be interments for two of his three children that were listed in the 1860 Hardin County, TN census, but no records seem to exist for them afterwards, until I found the cemetery information. 

1860 U.S. Census, Hardin County, Tennessee, John W. Womble household

While working at a genealogy conference last week in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, I took the opportunity to visit the Allen County Public Library and do some work on this family story.  Whenever I’m researching the Womble family I keep in mind to be on the lookout for varying spellings of the family’s name.  One of the spelling variations I’ve come across is Wamble. 

At the Allen County Public Library I discovered another variation—Wormble—yes that’s right—Wormble.  I was looking through a book that was an index of interments in the Nashville City Cemetery.  I didn’t expect to find anything new, but I came across a Wormble, Frank.  The other two Womble children I found listed in a Nashville City Cemetery interment database were just listed as infant Wamble.  No ages were given for them except for the notation son and child of J. W. Wamble.

This notation gave me the impression that those listings were for the youngest two of the three “missing” Womble kids from the 1860 census.  So my thought was where is the oldest of the three youngest kids, Franklin?  I wondered if perhaps he died before John W. and Mary Jane relocated to Nashville.  However, based on my finding it appears that Franklin died that same summer of 1861 along with his two youngest brothers.

I can’t believe that the family would’ve taken only the youngest children with them to Nashville when the war started.  It was a different time back then and kids did grow up and take on adult responsibilities even when they were teenagers or pre-teens.  However, leaving even teenagers to essentially fend for themselves in an uncertain era and a potentially dangerous environment coupled with the fact that I’ve found evidence suggesting that John W.’s wife and some of their children were in the city with him makes me think that the story isn’t true. 

More research will have to be done on this to see if I can find anything else that may disprove my theory and prove the validity of the story.