Report to Lt. Commander Kirk and Stephen Kirk 15 Nov 2000

  Dear clients this will be a cover letter to accompany the family group sheets and disc which I will be sending.  Also serve as a bibliography of sources checked for this report.

In accordance with your request a search was made at the Library at Raleigh and I received a form letter stating that there was no probate record of any kind in Cumberland county, N. Carolina for an Abraham Womack.   In thinking over what has been stated to me I would tend to think that your relative saw a copy of the Monroe county, Ga. will because the library there has court records abstracts from all over.   An archivist from the Raleigh library checked this for me plus I had already done Thornton Mitchill’s statewide probate index and it wasn’t listed there.  The archivist not only checked for a possible will but also for an estate settlement, inventory, etc.

I have found in my searching not one but several Abraham Womacks and I am enclosing copies of the families as I have been able to compile them from various sources. 

Your Abraham Womack in studying his Rev. war pension abstract which was at the bottom of one page and top of another indicates according to the man himself that he lived in Chatham county, N. Car. Both before and after the revolution.   No mention of living in Caswell county at all.   There were two other Abraham Womack/Womach’s in Caswell county early and the one remained in Caswell where he died.  The other Abraham ended up in Hancock county, Ga. at part of the same time that your Abraham Womack was there.  The other Abraham, not yours died in Hancock county, Ga, in 1797 and had a large family.  His family was living in Caswell during the time of Ratcliff’s early tax lists so those lists would refer to him and not to your ancestor who would have been in Chatham county during that time.

On the Stephen Kirk, we still have some problems about deciding whether there were one or two of them in Hancock early.  One of Parent counties of Hancock, Wilkes has Stephen with McClendon’s in Wilkes in 1780's.   With approximate age of Anna from 1830 census I had approximated her husband as about her same age.  However, if only one Stephen he would have been quite a bit older than she and there seems to be no proof if he married first an Elizabeth McClendon that they had any children at all.   The widow, Anna, had part of her husband’s estate go to her son’s orphan children.  No older Kirk’s that could have been children of Elizabeth McClendon Kirk and Stephen Kirk.   Did she die in childbirth as many ladies did with their babies?  No babies?  Available records all searched here.  No bible records in the large Ga. Daughters of the American revolution bible series.

Located Lt. Commander Kirk’s great grandfather, William Rod Barnes, under W. R. Barnes in a recheck of the 1920 census so am enclosing an updated family for you with a filmed copy of original census from Shelby county, Tenn.

Bibliography other sources checked in continuing search on Kirk/Womack, etc.  

1.  Genealogical Abstracts Rev. war Pension Files, 6 pgs. For each of you.  Kirks and Womack’s

Note that Massanello is the vet born in Cumberland county, Va. And not your Abraham.  Your Abraham states in his deposition that he was in Chatham county, N. Car. Both before and after the war, until 1786 when he moved to Hancock county, Ga.

2.  History of Jones county, Ga., 100 years, 975.8567H2w, tax digest 1811 shows Stephen Kirk and Charles Womack.

3.  Jones county, Ga. marriages, 975.85467V2i, Womack,Kirk names 6 pgs. Each

4.  Monroe county, Ga. marriages, 975.8563V2i (both marriages by Frances T. Ingmire), Womack/Kirk pages , 4 pgs. Each.

5.  Early records of Georgia Wilkes county,975.817N2d, by Grace Gillam Davidson.
Two pgs. Each, reference to Stephen Kirk witnessing a deed in 1780's, Arthur Smith to Joel McClendon.  

6.  The Wilkes county Papers, 1773-1833, #975.8172N2d , 2 pgs. Each showing early court case where an Abraham Womack involved.

7.  Chronicles of Wilkes county, Ga.  From Articles by Eliza A. Bowen, Rev. F. T. Simpson, S. A. Wooten and others.   Womack land marked, 2 pgs. Each.

8.  Wilkes county, Ga. deed books A-VV by Michael Martin Farmer, #975.8172R2fm, 7 pgs. Each.

9.  Elbert county, Ga.  Historical Collections, Ga. Chapter DAR 3 volumes checked, 975.8163P2d, Pg. 170, an Abraham Womack acting as justice of peace 7 March 1794.

10.  Official History Elbert county, Ga., compiler John H. McIntosh,975.816H2m, no Kirks or Womacks.  Noted a Minor Marsh, 12 July 1794, one of names showing up with your Elijah in Madison county, Tenn. Later.

11.  Will Abstracts Elbert county, Ga., 975.8163P2h by Marilee Beatty Hageness.

12.  Monroe county, Ga.a deeds Superior court deeds, films 164,137 volunme ABCD, film 164138 volumes F-G, film 164,139 volumes H-J, all checked and all indexed for Womack, Kirk names.

13. Monroe county, Ga. Suaperior court deed book L, item 2, film 164140, pg. 513, Mrs. Nancy Cromwell buying negroes 24 July 1845 from Lucy Womack, a 25 years sold mother and her children, 6,5, and 18 months.

14.  Checked early marriages for Wilkes county, Ga., 1792-1925 in case either of Stephen Kirk’s marriages there and they weren’t, #975.8172V22b.

15.  Checked International Genealogy Index of names submissions for states of Tenn., North Carolina , Georgia and Virginia for Kirk and Womack and compared against what we already had where pertinent added the data to the various sheets.

16.  Index 1920 census Tenn., soundex code B652 rechecked for just initials and found your William Rod, listed as W. R. Barnes, see enclosed original filmed copy of census plus family group sheet updated. Index film 1830254, found in Shelby county ED 67 sheet 11b line 91.  Original census film #1821762, item 3, see filmed copy.

This completes the review of all the Virginia Womack’s which I checked for in my book at home a general reference index called Virginia Wills and Administrations by Clayton Torrence, 1632/1800, by Gen. Publishing, Baltimore.   I have made out work sheets to do additional checking if you wish another time for the end of line Womach/Womacks by deeds in Chatham county, North Carolina and marriages there.  Then to finish the counties in Virginia, like Prince Edwards, etc.

We have a pretty good background now on the Abraham that you come through plus an Abraham in IGI within one year of your man’s approximate age in his revolutionary war deposition.  Records in that Virginia county would need to be thoroughly checked for probates I located in the above mentioned index for Womacks and in bordering counties, plus deeds.  Also for possible old church abstracts.

This completes the time that you sent me funds for plus another half day, 4 hours owing.