Albert Womble's Collateral Kith and Kin

Any genealogy book worth its salt will advise you to research an ancestors siblings and other collateral relatives as well as the ancestor themselves.  I've read this many, many times and I wish I had a dime for every time that I've read it.

I'll confess that this is a lot easier to say than to put to practice.  Only recently have I begun to fill in the holes in my family group sheet in regards to some one of my ancestors' siblings and half-siblings.

Awhile back I heard how FamilySearch is digitizing many their records.  I checked out what was available, but wasn't too impressed because much of what was available weren't items that I didn't already have. 

I'm really not too fond of doing genealogical research online and I don't recommend it as a rule.  My belief is that you should always, always try to find the documents you need from an archive, Family History Center, or courthouse.  Lately when I've been exploring what's available I've found that there are a lot of digital records out there.

The collateral relatives for Albert Womble are his siblings, Maude B. Cudworth, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Allen, and Charles.  Albert also has half-siblings that are from his father, John Washington Womble's first marriage to Mary Jane Stephens.  I believe that John's first wife died around the Civil War and he married Rhoda Caroline Richardson after the war.  The children that John W. had with Mary Jane are: Joab, Ellen, Adolphes Winfield, Martha L., Tranquilla Blanche, Franklin, Ruffin, and Jesse.

The shocking thing I found is that Ancestry has a selection of digital images of documents on their site.  Recently I searched for Tranquilla Blanche Womble or Wamble as it's sometimes spelled, she's one of Albert Womble's half-siblings.  My search came up a digitized image of her death certificate.  I was floored because I really thought that I wouldn't find anything! 

I tried to find death information for her brother, Adolphes Winfield Womble, they seemed to live together for their entire lives, but was unsuccessful.  I did a search on Ancestry of the census records for that household which consisted of Adolphes, Martha L., and Tranquilla Blanche in 1880 living in Hardeman County, Tennessee.  A search of the 1900 Federal Census showed Adolphes and Blanche living in McNairy County, Tennessee without Martha.  My belief was that she may have died after the 1880 census and before 1900, but after searching for a death record, I came up empty.  My research into the recording of death information in Tennessee is that if a person died in a non-metropolitan area before 1914 then there probably isn't a record of it.  Even though recording was put into practice in 1914, it wasn't pervasive and I believe that if the death occurred before 1918 or 1920 there's the possibility that it wasn't recorded even though official registration had started in 1914.

My thoughts turned to how could I at least get an idea of when Adolphes and Martha died.  The solution:  probate records.  I wasn't sure if Adolphes had left anything to his sister, Blanche but a search wouldn't hurt.

I did a search of the USGenWeb's archive for the state of Tennessee and came up with a transcription of a probate index for McNairy County, Tennessee.  This was searched for Blanche and Adolphes and I found a listing for them with the page number. 

I took this information with me to FamilySearch's website and searched through their digitized probate records.  In case you decide to try this at home, please keep in mind that the page numbers on their digital image viewer don't tally with the printed pages on the pages of the probate books.  Simple common sense helps to find the page.  I was able to print the images, which was great.  There wasn't any date on Blanche's will, but Adolphes' said he was deceased and had the date of 7 July 1919 on it.  While it would be great to find an exact death date, something is better than nothing. 

A search was done for deaths and probate records in Hardeman County, Tennessee for Martha L. Womble, but nothing was found.  My belief was that she probably died there because it's the last place of residence that I know of.

I did a search of cemetery records for McNairy County at www.mcnairytnhistory.com/cemeteries.html and found a listing for both Blanche and Adolphes at the Mars Hill Cemetery that's mentioned on Blanche's death certificate.  The cemetery is located in Adamsville, Tennessee and that's another place to search for records too.  There's a death date for Adolphes on the page that says he died 6 August 1922.  I don't know if that's true.  It still seems weird to me that if he died in 1922 then why haven't I been able to locate a death certificate for the man.

While I was searching away on Ancestry, I did a search for Ellen Womble, who is another one of Albert Womble's half-siblings.  I already knew that there is a public tree with her in it on the site and so I looked at that information to try to see if I could actually verify some of the data.  I was able to locate a digitized image of her marriage record to Isham Burgess Bowling on 4 August 1869 in Hardeman County, Tennessee.  So that's why she wasn't listed as living with her father in 1870, because she was married by then and living with her husband.  The rest of the information on her is unconfirmed, but it states that she moved to Texas with her husband, had many children with him and he died around 1882 and I don't think that she ever remarried.  Ellen or Nellie as I see her referred to, died in Texas in 1924.  

Today, I did a Google search for Ellen's older brother Joab, and was surprised by what I found.  Someone, who I should try to make contact with has a collection of photos on a website that seems devoted to picture sharing.  This person appeared to be connected to the Bowling family and Ellen was their grandmother or great-grandmother.  They had posted digital images of letters from both Joab and Blanche that were written to their sister, Ellen.  Another picture showed a digital image of information that someone had written about Ellen, her husband Isham Bowling, and her siblings.  This information mentioned a letter from Martha L. who was referred to as Mattie.  Mattie apparently wrote her sister in 1918 from Vernon, Missouri. 

Unfortunately, I saw no way for me to copy or print the information at least for my own use without joining the site.  But at least I knew I was wrong to assume that Martha had died because she had written to her sister in 1918!

Since I already know that there were digital images of Tennessee marriage records on Ancestry, I went there and searched for a marriage record for Martha Womble to someone.  I found a marriage record for a Mattie Womble to C. A. Long in McNairy County, Tennessee on 24 August 1898.  I'm not sure if this is the Mattie Womble I'm looking for, but it seems plausible because her siblings were living in McNairy County in 1900 and while I don't know when they moved there it just seems that it is my Mattie.

I did find a census record for a couple named Charlie A. and Mattie Long living in Vernon, Missouri in 1920, so it seems as if this is the missing Womble relative.  I still haven't come across a death record for either Charles or Mattie, but I'll try to remain vigilant in my search.

I still have not been able to find any additional information on Joab and he still remains my mystery man.  What's with him going off and fighting for the Confederacy, disappearing and then reappearing in the 1910 Federal Census in Taney County, Missouri anyway?!

Nor have I verified that Mary Jane Stephens and her three young children, Franklin, Ruffin, and Jesse died.  The person with the photo online did mention them and said that they didn't have any letters from them that were sent to their sister.  This makes me think that those kids really did die, I don't know about their mother, and I may never have an answer. 

Weeknight Projects

Diner's interior

For the past week, I’ve spent a little bit of time each evening working on my diner.  A few years ago I had made the beginnings of the counter and had even gone so far as to cover the front of it with thin cardboard.  The ‘skeletons’ of what will become the booths and tables were made at this time too. 

At that time I had considered covering the booth pieces with stained pieces of wood, but had decided against this because I didn’t want to deal with the wood stain fumes.  The instructions in Kath Dalmeny’s book talk about covering the booth pieces with brown paper.  I didn’t think the brown paper I had available would match the color shown in the book.  What I did have on hand were a couple of small dark brown gift boxes.  I saved these until I was ready to use them to cover the booths. 

Tabletops and counter section drying
after having paper glued to the backside

Over the past week I glued pieces of these dark brown boxes to the foam core booth ‘skeletons’.  Previously I had cut from nice cream-colored heavy paper the tops for the tables and the counter.  The thought of gluing the paper to the curved parts of the counter scared me, so I started off by gluing the paper onto the tops of the counter and the tables.  After this dried, I glued the paper completely to the tabletops and then started gluing it to the counter. 

Counter with heavy paper glued on top

  I was still bothered by the curved part of the   counter, so I glued the straight areas first to   build my confidence.  I had done some gluing   of fabric to curved pieces of wood and it was   always a difficult and messy process. 

Gluing the paper to curved
section of counter

I cut triangular pieces out of the edge of the paper when I began gluing the paper to the counter’s curved edge.  Little by little I glued these triangular edges to the underside of the counter.  This process worked out very well for me and as the counter’s creamy-colored surface began to take shape, my confidence in the project grew.

Gluing straight edges to counter's underside 

When I first began to make the counter and other furniture for the diner I knew I wanted to copy the items that Ms. Dalmeny makes for the diner in her book, Dollhouse Style.  However, when it actually came to making the furniture for this scene I found that I had a space issue.  The shop that I decided would be made into a diner is too small to accommodate the dimensions of the furniture that are illustrated in her book. 

Upon realization of this I decided to use it more as inspiration for my project.  I scaled down the counter’s size and then made booths and tables out of Lego to test out the sizing of those items coupled with the counter.  This turned out to be a great way to get an idea of how the diner would look when finished. 

I then transferred those measurements of the Lego made booths and tables into foam core board pieces, which I glued together to form the ‘skeletons’ for the booths.

When I first designed my counter I realized that it wouldn’t be able to be a freestanding object.  The plan is to have one end next to a wall.  The other end will be hinged to add an element of realism in that whomever is working the counter will be able to move from behind the counter out to the tables.  The plan is to put a door behind the counter.  This won’t be a working door and will only be there to hint that there is a kitchen behind the door.

Cut pieces of foam core board will be used as booth seats and backs.  Working on this project has spread to the weekend.  Saturday was spent cutting batting and vinyl fabric to the proper size to use for the booths and stools.  The batting was then sewn using a sewing machine to the wrong side of the vinyl fabric and I began to sew the stool cushion pieces together.  I tried to sew the pieces for the stool cushion on the sewing machine, but unfortunately found that this wasn't possible because of the pieces were too small.  I only cut enough fabric pieces for two stools.  I think that I may only have room around the counter for two stools.

I sewed a cushion for one stool today by hand.  I made the small circle of cardboard to go inside as Ms. Dalmeny suggests and put a couple of pieces of foam circles inside and then sewed it up.  What was difficult was that it wasn’t until I trimmed the seam allowances that everything fit inside.  It would’ve been nice if that had been mentioned in the book.

After covering the countertop and extended counter section with heavy paper, I hinged the sections together.  The hinges were first glued to the edges and then the tiny nails were sunk into the foam core board.  This will all be reinforced with glue to keep the nails from coming out.  I found a piece of mat board that will work for the floor.  On a shopping trip to my beloved local miniatures store, Once Upon A Time, I purchased flooring paper that I’ll use in the diner.  My hope is to arrange the pieces so that border around the outside edge is continuous.  Since flooring is the last thing that I do when creating one of my miniature projects, it will take awhile to see if this actually will work out.

Sewing the stool’s cushion takes a lot of work.  I took a break from it by gluing the booths’ foam core board seats and backs to the coverings for the booths.  I weighed these all down with books after covering with waxed paper.