In my posting of 2/3/04, concerning Herbert Seversmith's work on the Hope5-4,
John3 line of Carpenters, I failed to include an important cautionary
statement. Seversmith did primary research only on John3 and his descendants
(resulting in "an extensively revised account of the connections recited in A
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE REHOBOTH BRANCH OF THE CARPENTER FAMILY IN AMERICA, by
Amos B. Carpenter, 1898").
The material he presents for William2 of Rehoboth and all John3's siblings
except Abiah3, however, is a repetition of Amos B. Carpenter, which he
"abstracted for the convenience of the reader" and for which he "assumes no
responsibility whatsoever for inaccuracies found therein." He says further that
"[t]he
descendants of this William Carpenter [i.e., William2] are given to the second
generation as reported by the late Amos B. Carpenter . . . , and no attempt
has been made to check the correctness of the Massachusetts lines." Anyone who
consults Seversmith should therefore begin with the understanding that the
same proliferation of errors found in ABC's work are duplicated in
Seversmith--except for the lines of John3 and Abiah3.
The material Seversmith presents for Abiah3 and his children is taken from L.
Effingham deForest and Anne Lawrence deForest, JAMES COX BRADY AND HIS
ANCESTRY (New York, 1933). The deForests preface their account of Abiah Carpenter's
children thus: "THE REHOBOTH BRANCH OF THE CARPENTER FAMILY (1898) contains
so many obvious inaccuracies and contradictions, especially in the sections
concerning the children of Abiah3 Carpenter, Oliver4 Carpenter, and Christopher5
Carpenter, that the present writers have thought it best to construct the
family line from other sources." While the deForests' decision is well taken,
their version depends heavily on John Osborne Austin, THE GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY
OF RHODE ISLAND, whose material on Abiah3 and his family has its own problems
(it's nevertheless an improvement on ABC).
An article entitled "Abiah3 Carpenter of Warwick, Rhode Island, and His
Family" will soon appear in THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER.
It addresses the various shortcomings in the secondary literature pertaining
to Abiah and his family. (The article's subtitle, "With Additional Material
Concerning William1 Carpenter of Providence, Rhode Island, and William2
Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts," refers to two appendixes, dealing respectively
with the following issues: [1] whether or not the two immigrant Williams were
cousins, and [2] the marriage and immigration of William1 of Providence.)
Gene Z.