It is probably
smart that we step back from the chronological story of John Carter to discuss
the births and names of the family members.
To the best of my knowledge there is no family Bible that recorded this
family. If there was one, its existence
is unknown to me. In addition we have a
family who after 1834 and surely by 1846 was being scattered never to be a
single unit again. Efforts by the family
members to collect the family record began, as we know it with a list of the
family gathered by John’s son, Phillip, in December, 1835. William Furlsbury Carter, another son,
likewise collected this information it appears from Phillip in 1854 as he
returned from his mission to India. So
we have those two accounts from the family.
In addition we
have the records of Newry, Maine where the family had settled. It was in Newry
that the last eight of the children of John and Hannah would be born. Interestingly these records were not compiled
as the children were born but all in one group indicating that they were being
registered in the town records. This was
a common practice in New England towns that family groups were registered in a
town when they moved there or the town would occasionally gather the records of
families. Some towns would record children
as they were born in the community but an occasional listing was frequently
done in many towns. This could lead to
false assumptions of birth place and would usually leave off children who had
previously died.
Newry, Maine Town Record of Carter Family |
In 1821 or 1822
the Carter children were enumerated in Newry.
The original document reads:
Dominicus Son of John and Hannah Carter was born June 21, 1806.
Almira Carter Daughter of John and Hannah Carter was born January 3,
1808
Hannah Carter Daughter of J & H Carter was born June 23, 1809
William Carter Son of J & H Carter was born May 1, 1811
Philip Carter Son of J & H Carter was born January 17, 1813
John Carter Son of J & H Carter was born October 6, 1816
Eliza Ann Carter Daughter of J & H Carter was born September 28,
1818
Richard Harrison Carter Son of J &H Carter was born August 8, 1820
( Office of Town Clerk, Newry,
Maine, Town Records, 1805 - 1846, Family History Library Film #11589, pages
unnumbered.)
The first obvious
problem with this list the logical assumption that since this is a listing of
children born in Newry, that all of these children were born there. We have ample proof that the family did not
move to Newry until after the first three children were born. William was the
first of their children to actually be born in Newry. The second problem is that this is a list of
living children and they had lost one child born between Philip and John. The third problem is that this list is
incomplete as John and Hannah had two more children born after the record was
recorded. Because the town did not
record children as they were born in this era and the Carters would move before
another record would be made these last two children were never recorded in the
town of their birth.
We need now to
turn to the first of the two listings done by children of John and Hannah. The first is a record of Philip Libby
Carter. Philip had left Newry early (around
1835 or so) and had moved to Massachusetts.
There he worked at blacksmithing, married Martha Eames York (whose
siblings married William Furlsbury and Hannah Carter), and in May of 1851 moved
to Hancock County. I have not seen the
original of Philip’s listing of children but our early Carter research Leslie
A. Carter transcribed it on a visit to his cousin Dora Carter Bolt of Lima,
Illinois in 1952. He titled the document
“Transcript of Family Record of John and Hannah K. (Libby) Carter compiled by
Philip L. Carter. Date: Dec – 1853” The following is his record:
Philip L. Carter's List (Transcribed by Leslie A. Carter) |
The Record of
Dominicus Carter was Born June the 21st 1806
Almira Carter was Born January the 3d 1808
Hannah Carter was Born June 28, 1809
William Carter was Born May 1 1811
Philip L Carter was Born January the 17 1813
John H Carter was Born January 13, 1815
John Carter Jr. was Born October 6 1816
Eliza Ann Carter was Born September 28, 1818
Richard Carter was Born August 8, 1820
Mary Jane Carter was Born March 13, 1823
Rufus Carter was Born October the 9 1825
John Harrison Carter dyed April 11 1815
Rufus Carter dyed October the 9 1827
( Philip Libby Carter, List of Siblings recorded by Mrs. Dora Carter
Bolt and transcribed of a family record of John and Hannah K. (Libby) Carter
compiled by Philip L. Carter, dated Dec., 1835 – copy by Leslie Carter in
possession of Robert E. Givens, Clovis, CA.)
This is a
remarkable document as it includes all eleven children of John and Hannah. If
the date of creation if accurate he would have had his parent’s help in
creating this or maybe at that point there was a family Bible that he could
have copied.
Before doing an
analysis of this document, let’s address the 1854 version of the family
produced by William Furlsbury penned during his return from a mission to
India. The letter is addressed to his
wife Sarah and dated 5 Feb 1854 in Boston.
He had caught typhoid in India and had to leave his mission early. After asking to sail to New England , so he
could visit his family left behind there, he was allowed to make passage with a
ship sailing to Boston. He landed in
Boston on 10 November 1853. He spent the
rest of November with family in the Maine leaving for the West on 5 December
1853. Five days before Christmas in 1853
he arrived at Lima, Illinois where he visited with his siblings Philip, Mary
Jane and Almira. It was here that he
learned of the death of his father, John, and Jacob Dooley, Mary Jane’s
husband. William’s letter clearly says
Boston so he probably started to write it there but based on the date he was
most surely in Illinois when he finished it.
Since the listing of the children in his letter is almost identical I
suspect he copied the information from the list that Leslie A Carter
transcribed in 1952. Here is William’s
listing:
William F. Carter - Letter of 1854 listing siblings |
John Carter b. May 19, 1783 in Scarborough
Hannah N (sic) Carter b. October 9, 1786 in Scarborough
Dominicus Carter b. Jun 21, 1806 in Scarborough
Almira Carter b. January 3, 1808 in Scarborough
Hannah Carter b. June 28, 1809 in Scarborough
William F Carter b. 2 May 1811 in Newry
Phillip L Carter b. 11 January 1813 in Newry
John H Carter b. January 13, 1815 in Newry
John Carter Jr. b. October 6, 1816 in Newry
Elizann Carter b. September 23, 1818 in Newry
Richard Carter b. August 8, 1820 in Newry
Maryane Carter b. March 13, 1823 in Newry
Rufus Carter b. October 9, 1825 in Newry
John Harrison Carter died in ... Aprill (sic) 11,1815
Rufus Carter died in Newry October 9, 1827
(William Furlsbury Carter,
Letter: Boston (sic), to Sarah
Carter, 1854 Feb. 5, LDS Church History Library, MS 18978. Original letter donated to the Library by the
author of this work.)
We owe a lot to
Philip and William for compiling these lists.
Without them we might have had problems collecting the complete record
of this family. My grandmother, Christa
Lillis Wilkins Givens Damron, who was William’s granddaughter, wrote a moving
story of rereading the letter with William’s listing of the family in the 1930’s
or 40’s and realizing that her branch of the family had totally left Rufus Carter
out of this family group. So these lists
were of a great value to our early genealogists.
One more topic
ought to be addressed at this time:
Names! There have been issues for
what seems forever over the actual names of some of the members of this family. First I would like to point out that the
exactness of names as we perceive them now, has not always been that way. An
illustration of this can be drawn from my mother’s family. My mother was named Jennie Elizabeth after
her grandmother. The only problem was
her grandmother, Jennie Elizabeth Beck Sands, was actually born Elizabeth Jane
Beck and changed her name in 1870 when she married my great grandfather. So
were names in those days. People often
changed or altered their names. With
this in mind let’s visit a few names in this family:
John Carter – I have done extensive research on John and have never
seen a middle name or initial for him in any document that I have viewed. Yet in the family is a tradition that his
name is really John C Carter. If that is
claim could be substantiated by records held by others I would love to have you
step forward and let us see the documentation.
William (Furlsbury) Carter – Now William is my 2nd great
grandfather so I feel vested in studying him.
I really think he was born William Carter. The Furlsbury never appears before the
Illinois period of his life. I think at
that point he made up a middle name to differentiate him from the other William
Carters in the Church.
John (Harrison) Carter (Jr.) – This second John in the family, born
after the first John H. died in 1816 was apparently born just John Carter
Jr. He was known by that all the way
through the Nauvoo years and it was only after then that he started using John
Harrison Carter as his name.
Now that the
family of John Hannah has been established, we need to move on the John’s life
in Newry.
This isn't my family, but enjoy how it is being put together. I followed you in putting down the purpose of my blog (The Honeymoon Trail). I believe you said you had an ancestor who went to Arizona during the time period of my blog. Posted on my old blog today for the first time in over a year. It is called "The Happy Dance" Thanks to a familysearch.org patron, I received a connection that broke through a brick wall I have had for many years. (thestephensherwoodletters.blogspot.com). Good luck in your blogging.
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