Carter Ancestral Line - Part 1

The next set of posts follows my husband’s Carter ancestors from Clarence Carter who died in 1964 in Kansas back to Daniel Carter who was born in 1725 in Virginia and covers 6 generations.

I am researching this line to support a yDNA test and to try to document family trees that were passed down or previously published.  I am confident in the relationships back to Daniel.  Several researchers have looked for evidence of Daniel’s parents and he is most often linked to either Giles or Povall or Robert Carter, sons or grandsons of Giles Carter the immigrant.  Evidence for these relationships includes proximity, naming patterns and documents that show interactions between the families.  The most serious researchers, that is, those with actual sources, believe Giles to be the father.  Whichever of the men was the father, the yDNA trail would still lead back to Giles the immigrant.

However, years ago Tom had his DNA tested at 23andMe.  They don’t specifically do yDNA but they do give a paternal haplogroup.  Tom’s is R-M512 (also called R1a1a).  There is a Carter yDNA project on FamilyTreeDNA that has shared their results on a spreadsheet on their site.  Searching that spreadsheet for Giles, there are two participants who name him as an ancestor, and both are in the haplogroup I-M253 (also called I1-12)…not even close.

Now, there are a lot of Carter’s who share the R-M512 haplogroup, including one descendant of Daniel.  So the research question continues to be - who is the father of Daniel?

Possible scenarios:

The two testers who are associated with Giles in the DNA project have incorrect genealogy.

Daniel is the son of one of the other Carter’s living in colonial Virginia.

Daniel’s mother had a child from a previous marriage and then married into the Carter line.

Further yDNA testing would help to narrow the search.  There is a second yDNA project as part of the Carter Society focused on the colonial Virginia Carter’s, including Giles.  That project is private and would need an invitation to see the results.  Maybe down the line.  I also need to do more research on the descendants of Daniel’s other children.

A second research goal is to locate the land the Carter’s lived on.  For now, this is what I know.

 

Clarence Walton Carter (1882-1964) – Tom’s Grandfather

Clarence Walton Carter, son of Matthew and Martha, was born September 26, 1882 near Fayetteville, West Virginia.  While he was still a toddler, he moved with his parents to Miami County, Kansas.

His first marriage was to Birdie Farrel in 1906.  They had three children, Cecil, Myrtle and Wayne.  Wayne died at age one.  Family notes say they divorced around 1915 and that Birdie died in 1917.

On 5 Sep 1917, Clarence married Elizabeth Emmaline (Bessie) Whitaker who was born 2 Jul 1890 near Louisburg. Their first daughter, Clarice Nadine, died at birth.  They went on to have three more children, James, Riley and Martha. The family lived on the Matthew Carter farm and the children attended the rural Snake Den school.

As a young man, Clarence farmed, went with the wheat harvest crew, and attended an electrical course at Manhattan State College. He worked for over 40 years as telephone electrician in Louisburg and the surrounding community. Retiring in 1947, he and Bessie moved to Prescott, Arizona, returning to Louisburg in August 1957.

Clarence preceded his wife in death 27 Nov 1964.  Bessie died in 1974. Both are buried in the Louisburg Cemetery.