How Family History Writing Forces Us to Dig DEEPER

February is Family History Writing Month
During the month of February, I went on hiatus from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter in order to participate in the Family History Writing Challenge. My goal was quite ambitious, but I did succeed in setting up the framework of the family history memoir, and wrote a rough draft of the opening scenes.

The memoir focuses on a promise I had made to our Cousin Hattie Carter Becton in an interview, following the the 2009 George Family Reunion in North Harlowe, North Carolina. In case you missed the Challenge, you can find the posts here. The site was developed especially for writing challenges, beginning with this year's; so, you may want to go back to the first posts in the archive.

March was memoir reading, research & development month
Last month I continued working on the writing, but also began focusing on webinars and YouTube videos related to writing memoir. Two really great sites are National Association of Memoir Writers and Women's Memoirs blog. There are so many helpful resources available to assist memoir writers.

In between training sessions and archived videos from RootsTech, I pulled out my Legacy 7.5 training videos and started attaching scanned copies of primary documents and photos to my family tree in order to bring it up to professional standards.

April is the month to Dig DEEPER
As I was writing about my grandfather-in-law...the son of Isaac Carter...I wanted to refer back to a particular Census document that was not yet attached to my family tree. It wasn't too difficult to find located in a family surname binder by generation, but it would have been so much easier to just pull it up from the family tree. I could've gone to my Ancestry.com tree, but got involved looking up something else.

My mind went back to the family legend of how Hezekiah Carter killed a man over a woman. You can find the original post here. I had been told that there was more than one Carter family living in North Harlowe, and that John Henry Carter was from one of those other families.

But today, I decided to dig a little deeper and try to discover if there was any familial relationship between Hezekiah and John Henry Carter.

The Death Certificate
First I went back to John Carter's death certificate and abstracted the information contained there:

1. A "colored" male, born June 10, 1888 in North Harlow
2. Parents: James Fenner and Nancy Carter
3. Married
4. Occupation: Laborer
5. Died on August 26, 1926, age 38
6. Place of death: St.Luke's Hospital
7. Cause of death: Homicide--gunshot wound, arm
8. J.L. Hartsfield, coroner
9. Buried Aug 27, 1926 in North Harlow
10. Undertaker: Merritt Whitley & Sons, Newbern
11. Informant: Josephine Carter, North Harlow

The last bit of information intrigued me. Josephine (Dove) Carter was Hezekiah's sister-in-law, the wife of William Henry Carter, who lived in the house next door. I began to wonder what her interest in the case, other than perhaps a witness, might have been such that she would be the informant on John Henry Carter's death certificate. Usually the informant is related to the deceased.

1900 Census

Next, I decided to search for his parents in the 1900 Census. I couldn't find a record of him living with his parents, or at least his mother. Instead, I found him in the household of Barbara Dove. She was a fifty-seven year old widow living with her nephews: Syvester (18), Ruffus (17), Lavy (10) and John H. (11), and her neice Alivia (7). The children were all Carters. 

Marriage Register Search

Now that a relationship is established between the Carters and the Doves, I wanted to see if Barbara was indeed a Carter. I discovered on the New Bern-Craven County Public Library's Marriage Register Search  that Barbara Carter married Jacob Dove on June 22, 1868. 

Family Tree Database

I searched my family tree database for a Barbara Carter and found one born abt. 1842 (NOTE: Barbara Carter was enumerated in the 1900 Census as being born in 1843, age 57), the daughter of William Carter and Nancy Moore.

The only problem with this information is that this Barbara Carter, to my present knowledge, did not have a sister named Nancy. 

1910 Census

In 1910, John (19) and his sister Olivia K. Carter (18) are both still living in the household of Barbara Dove. The other siblings have removed elsewhere.

After this, I was unable to find any further information on Barbara (Carter) Dove and her nephew, John Henry Carter, on Ancestry.com. Nor could I find any information on his mother, Nancy Carter. 

FamilySearch.org did not reveal any estate records which might prove any relationships in this case. 

Ask Family Researchers

My next step is to see if any cousins have any related information that might help reveal the relationship between John Henry Carter and Hezekiah Carter. 

If you might have any ideas on how to break through this BRICK WALL,

please leave your comments here.

Note: This article has been expanded and updated with new research. To read the current, comprehensive version and explore my latest projects, coaching, and storytelling services, please visit my official author platform at: debranewtoncarter.com.

Amanuensis Monday: The Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter: Document #23

Isaac Carter filed this affidavit, along with those previously transcribed here, with his original pension claim form.

If you have been following the testimony, you will note that this affidavit includes some additional supporting details which enhance the timeline of events. If not, you can follow the transcriptions of this Civil War Pension File by clicking on the page tag above.

NOTE: The specific details that did not come out in the full testimony of Isaac's comrades and neighbors are highlighted in yellow.

Document #23: Affidavit: Isaac Carter, 10 May 1892

State of North Carolina)
County of Craven         )
In matter of original Invalid claim
No. 662812 of Isaac Carter Late Sergeant
of Co. B & G 14 Regt U.S.C. H Arty
on this 10th Day of May A.D. 1892
Personally appeared before me a
Notary Public for and
Within the County and State
afore said, Isaac Carter age
51 years Resident Harlow Craven
Co. N.C. well known to be
Reputable and Entitled to credit
who being Duly Sworn
according to Law Discloses

as follows. I enlisted a Privat
of Co. B 14 Regt U.S.C.H. Arty
March 12, 1864, and Promoted
Second Sergeant of Co. B 14
Regt U.S.C.H. Arty on about
Sept 1864. and was Transfered
to Co. G 14 Regt U.S.C.H. Arty
as Duty Sergeant on about the 
month September 1865 and
was Honorable Discharge Duty
Sergeant of Co. G 14 Regt U.S.
C.H. Arty December 11th 1865
and I Gone Lived at Harlowe
Craven Co. N.C. The First
Disease I contracted while I was
in Co. B. 14Regt.U.S.C.H. Arty
was the Rheumatism. At Caroline
City, N.C. on or about the month
of December 1864 The Regiment
was Taken from Warm Baracks
at New Berne N.C. on about the
Last of November 1864 and
carried to Carolina City N.C.
and we Layed out some
Eight or Ten Days with out
Tents, and it Sleeted and snow
and Rain and we was Expose
to the Weather and I was taken
with Pains in Feet and Legs and
I have been growing worse
Every Since with the Chronic
Rheumatism, at times Down
in my Bed not able to help
my self in the Spring 1865
I was taken with Chronic
Diarrhea by Drinking Bad
Bad water which Resulted
in to Piles and the Doctor
Treated me in Hospital at
Carolina City. I also was taken
with Deep Cold. and Asthma
in the Spring of 1865 and
inlargement of the Stomache
of which I have been greatly
Trouble with Each and Every
Year Since, Cough and Lung
Trouble at times have be Prop
up in a my Bed. xxxxx me xxxxx
unable to Do Manual Labor
and my wife and children
works out to take xxxx of
me. I thought that I would
Die once or twice at Carolina
City N.C. in Spring of 1865
I was Down in Hospital
with the afore said Disabilities
I have furnish worth and competent
witnesses who was of my Company
and Regimene and this affidavit
and filed with my claim to
wit Sergeant Albert A. Elliott
Sergt Silas Fenner, Privet Samuel
Keach of Co. B. 14 Regt U. S.C.H.
Arty and Privet Sharper
Williams of Co. G 14 Regt U.S.
C.H. Arty these men was with
me and I have furnish Neighbor
Witnesses as to my Present
Condition and I ask that my
Case be made Special according
to the Rules. and Regulations of
the Pension Department. I
am now suffering for the
Necessary of this Life and
unable to work. I ask that
Commissioners to Please Consider
my poor condition now while 
I am Living.
Witness           )                      his
EW Carpenter )             Isaac  X  Carter
[  ] E Hudson  )                     mark

                                               sworn & sub-
scribed to before me this
10th day of May/92 & I certify
that the foregoing was
read to claimant before
making his mark to
same & that he is the
identical person he claims
to be & in credible & worthy of
belief.                       EW Carpenter
                                 Notary Public

First Steps in Organizing a New Project

This post originally appeared on the Adventures in Family History Writing (blog) and has been edited.

At this stage in my life, I have established and purged my personal library several times over. However, this time I'm rebuilding my collection based on my research and writing goals. Many of the books I select are not new releases, found in the genres of African American history, biography and memoir,  fiction and historical fiction, local histories, and published genealogies. And for that reason, I have been fortunate to find used, like-new hardcover editions at a significant discount. This is the library that I will leave to my children. Should they desire to preserve even a portion of it remains to be determined.

In addition to these books, there are the volumes of binders containing my genealogical research, plastic file boxes of loose papers I gathered, and genealogical files I inherited. Somewhere among the boxes are artifacts...my parents' musical wedding album...the letters, post cards and photos my father sent my mother when he was in the Air Force...items my cousins passed on to me which had belonged to their branches of the family...boxes of loose photos, envelopes of negatives, boxes and binders of slides my father took to inspire his painting.

All these things must be labeled, preserved, and archived. I have read about family historians who never received their legacy because the executor of an estate didn't recognize the value of unidentified photos or other cherished items that could have potentially given those left behind more clues to their family's past. And for this reason, I want to prepare them so they are available to inspire my writing when I need them, and store them, indexed, so they are easily found when the need arises. But more importantly, so that our children will have a greater understanding and appreciation for these artifacts when they become the trustees of the family legacy, because of the careful archival treatment they received during my lifetime.

Available on Amazon.com

Today I ordered, How to Archive Family Keepsakes, by Denise May Levenick, also known as The Family Curator. I've been following her blog for a couple of years now, but her latest book seems to assemble all the different aspects of caring for various types of family archival collections that she has shared with us over the years. I've been following her Blog Book Tour, and you can too! My copy is scheduled to ship tomorrow (Monday), and I should have it in hand by Thursday! I can hardly wait!