Using Collateral Research to Verify Womble Civil War Story

Previously, I posted about wanting to find out if a family story was true. This was posted on this blog March 23, 2013. I’ve spent much of the summer trying to confirm the story’s validity by researching the H. F. Myers who co-signed John Washington Womble’s marriage bond to his 2nd wife, Rhoda Caroline Richardson.

My thought had been that by finding out more about this Myers guy, I would either learn some connection between him and John’s 2nd wife, or uncover a connection between Myers and my John W.

Census records revealed that H. F. Myers would’ve been a contemporary of John’s, since he was 36 in 1860 and John was about 42. Nashville city directories showed that Myers was a merchant and more specifically owned a tailor shop on Cedar St. in the city. The 1866 Nashville city directory lists John W. Womble’s profession as a tailor. His occupation is further backed up by other census records, city directory listings, and family lore.

However, I’m sure that there were many other tailor shops in Nashville in the early to mid-1860’s that could’ve employed my great-great grandfather. Yet, if John didn’t work for him then why would Myers co-sign a marriage bond for a man that he didn’t have any connection to?

I viewed land records that H. F. Myers purchased around the point in time when John would’ve been living in the area thinking that he might be listed as a witness. However, John wasn’t a witness to these records or at least that detail wasn’t recorded.

Shortly after the Civil War ended and after John and Rhoda married, H. F. Myers died. He left a will, but the will doesn’t mention John. Nor, is John mentioned as having witnessed Myers writing the will when it was presented in court. I still haven’t been able to view the court case of Robert Carter for stealing a coat from Myers’ store in May 1865. It may be that John didn’t witness the theft, because it occurred after he and Rhoda married, he may have been on his honeymoon or have left the city.

As a way to further my research I got a book via inter library loan on the occupation on Nashville during the Civil War. The book makes mention a few times that when the Confederate military was vacating the city and the Union troops were moving in that so many businesses were closed. The city streets were so void of people as if it were a Sunday.

Reading this made me wonder how John could’ve continued to live in the city without being able to go to work. However, the fact that he married there in 1865 seems to give evidence that he somehow was able to eke out an existence. Myers could’ve lost many employees as people enlisted in the military or vacated the city at the start of the war or later when the Union army took over. John could’ve decided to stay on in the city, because by the time that the Confederates were losing their hold on Nashville, his wife might have been too ill to travel back to their home in Hardin County. By sticking it out in the city, John could’ve shown his loyalty to Myers. This might have led Myers to co-sign John’s marriage bond to show his appreciation or gratitude.

There’s also the idea that when John initially worked as a tailor in Nashville that he didn’t work for Myers, but did later because his previous boss decided to close up shop and leave the city before the Union forces arrived.

More on My Rhoda Caroline Richardson Research

When I last posted about my research on Rhoda Caroline, I had sent an e-mail to the Tennessee Conferences Archives, History Depository and hadn’t received a response.  I was considering sending an e-mail directly to the archivist inquiring about records for the Elm Street Methodist Church.  Also, I had ordered the Elm Street Methodist Church records on microfilm from the TSLA.

Shortly after sending in my order to the TSLA, I received a phone call and e-mail from them telling me that those records actually covered 3 reels of microfilm.  They asked if I wanted to send in more money to order the other 2 reels, since I had only sent in a check to cover the cost of one reel.  There was nothing on the TSLA’s microfilm ordering page indicating the number of reels for a particular record group.  I wrote back saying that I was interested in the membership records for the Elm Street Methodist Church and if they were on one reel than I’d like to purchase that.  The staff found that those records were on one reel of microfilm and so they sent that reel to me.

In the meantime, I sent another e-mail to the archivist’s personal e-mail address of the Tennessee Conferences Archives, History Depository and received a reply.  I told them the name of the family I was looking for.  Since the records that were available were from the mid-1880’s, I thought it best not to ask if there were records for Richardson and ask about records for people with the last name of Womble.

I received a response which contained a decent about of information about the Womble line I’m researching.  I asked about the possibility of purchasing copies of the information that had been found and sent a check to them.

I haven’t received the copies yet, but I imagine that they’ll appear after the holidays.  Last week, I received the microfilm reel I had purchased from the TSLA.  I went to my local library to look at the records on the reel.  I found some of the records that the archivist at the Tennessee Conferences Archives had found for me.  While I looked through the membership records for the name Womble, I also searched for Richardson and Mijers, which is the name of a person who co-signed the marriage bond with John Washington Womble.  I didn’t see anyone with the last name of  Richardson or Mijers.

While looking at the records I noticed that Rhoda Caroline or Callie as she’s listed in the Elm Street Methodist Church membership records was received in 1885.  Her daughter, Maud was also received later that same year.  John Washington Womble was received in 1886 and it’s noted that it was done via vows.  I’m not sure what the significance of that is.  I’ve heard that when someone joins another church as a baptized adult that they’re received.  If they’ve never been baptized then they might be baptized when they join a  church; however, if John W. Womble hadn’t been baptized then I would think he would’ve been when he was received.  So again, I’m not sure if it’s significant that when he was received it was with vows.  Could he not join in person and so conveyed his intention to join the church via vows?

Since both Rhoda Caroline and her daughter were received without any vows or baptism, it seems likely that they had already been baptized when they joined this church.  Maybe this is a question to ask the archivist when I receive my copies?  I also should ask about other Methodist churches in Nashville that may have records available dating back to around the Civil War or at least ask what happened to the early membership records for this church.

Based on what I’ve read about using church records in genealogical research, it seems that the records are sometimes only really great if the person recording the information was extremely thorough in their record keeping.  My extremely limited knowledge of Methodist church records is that that particular denomination was not big on keeping records as a general rule.  So perhaps what I found is as good as it’s gonna get for me.

I’m happy that I sought out this information since church records are still uncharted waters in my genealogical skills.  I have a bit of experience in obtaining them, but this is the deepest that I’ve ever dove into the religious records pool of genealogical documents.  Still after having found this tidbit of information, I’m left with a “what’s next” feeling.  I’d really like to milk these records for every once of information, but I’m not sure that it’s really possible.

I do think that it would be a good idea to see if I can dredge up other church records for this family.  Since I found them belonging to a Methodist church, then there’s a good chance that I may be able to find them belonging to another Methodist church in another locale.  Hopefully, the more information I can find about John Washington Womble the more information I will locate about his wife, Rhoda Caroline Richardson.

 

Ideas for learning more about Rhoda Caroline Richardson

Rhoda Caroline Richardson?

Earlier I blogged about obtaining Rhoda Caroline Richardson Womble’s death certificate in an effort to find out the names of her parents.  While getting the document was worth the money, I don’t feel that it answered my question due to misinformation from the informant.  So I’m back to the drawing board with this project!

I haven’t spent a lot of time researching the women in the line I’m working on primarily because it hasn’t been that difficult until now.  Normally, I’ve at least been able to find small scraps of information that have satisfied my curiosity such as,  the names of their parents and what state they were born in.

Some books I read on getting information about ones female ancestors suggested searching through probate records for someone with the same last name mentioning the female in question in a will.  I searched through some digital images of wills online at FamilySearch.org and didn’t find anything.  This was a bit discouraging, so I decided to think about other avenues for learning more about Rhoda. 

I don’t have much to go on.  The family story if you can call it that, says that she was born in Indiana and then moved to Tennessee as a girl.  Most of the documents I’ve found about her support that she was born in Indiana and since she got married in Tennessee, she must have moved there at some point after her birth. 

Her marriage occurred in Nashville, Tennessee just after the Civil War, and my guess has always been that she may have been living there during the war and that’s where she met her husband, John Washington Womble.  I looked at census records for 1860 for a female with a similar name to Rhoda’s, who was born in Indiana.  I found a couple of young women who were named either R C or Caroline, but I was unable to figure out if one of them was who I was looking for.

I looked through the Nashville City Directory trying to find other people with the same last name, but at this point was unable to find a way to tie them to Rhoda.

My strategy is to try to pursue church records in Nashville because they might give me more information about her life and lead me to members of her family or the identity of her parents.  Rhoda and John W Womble were married by a Justice of the Peace, so I doubt that this will lead me to a church.  The person who co-signed the marriage bond with John W Womble was name H F Mijers and I couldn't figure how they could be connected to Rhoda.  I did find a H F Myers listed in the 1866 Nashville City Directory.  He had a clothing store or tailoring business.  John W Womble was a tailor, so he could've worked there, but does that mean that his employer would have co-signed a marriage bond.  That seems unlikely to me.

I came up with the idea to get a listing of churches in Nashville during the time when Rhoda lived there.  Not only did she perhaps live there during the Civil War, but also later on from about the mid-1880’s until she died in 1904.  Then the plan is to find a churches near where Rhoda lived and try to find out what records exist that could help me in my search.

The other idea I had was to obtain marriage certificates for her children to see if I could determine the name or denomination of church where the wedding took place.  I examined Albert’s (Rhoda’s son) marriage documents and wasn’t able to learn the denomination of the person who married them.  I know from the marriage announcement for Albert and his bride that they were married in a relatives home (the bride’s maternal grandfather).  The person who married them is listed as E T Brantly V D M on the marriage certificate.  I looked up in a dictionary online as to the meaning of the acronym V D M and learned that it’s Latin for Verbi Dei Minister, which means Preacher of God's Word.  I still have no idea as to what denomination of Minister would use this acronym.

My next course of action is to pursue obtaining Rhoda’s daughter, Maude B Womble’s marriage certificate.  Perhaps the infamous Maude B. Cudworth will actually be able to help me with my research instead of being a detriment.