Hi, Jack!
I appreciate your quick response to my posting about the ever-elusive
Thornton Carter. Actually, I'm in pretty good shape when it comes to moving
forward in time, but finding out who Thornton's parents were is a task which
may cause me to abandon all ties to civilization and go live on a small
abandoned island somewhere in an uncharted area of the Caribbean where my
only "relatives" are coconuts. And it's the "nuts" part which I
particularly
tend to relate to at the moment.....
I've noticed from many of your previous postings, and from some of your
answers to postings, that you have a pretty broad knowledge of our extended
Carter family. Hopefully, you might be able to help me out with a couple of
hunches I've had for quite awhile. I guess that, primarily, it's the
"Pannill" surname which really has me intrigued and the fact that Thornton
used it as his son Josiah's middle name (spelled "Pennell"). In fact,
according to my information, it was actually the middle name "Pennell" which
my ancestor used, rather than Josiah.
During the past several years of trying to find Thornton's parents, I have
returned time and time again to the line of Captain Thomas Carter which
includes marriages between the Carter family and the Thorntons and also
includes a marriage between Daniel Carter and Elizabeth Pannill. However, I
could never find any references to a child or grandchild of Daniel's who was
named Thornton. I searched the names of known children of Daniel's siblings
hoping to find some clues there, but only met with brick walls. Just a
couple of days ago, I happened to find a reference to one of Daniel's sons --
William -- whose middle name was listed as "Pannill". This caused me to
remember something another researcher had mentioned to me fairly recently
about there being three William Carters in Chatham County, NC during the same
period of time when my Thornton was there in 1810-1830. I hadn't paid very
much attention to the name "William Carter" before because I had no reason to
connect it to Thornton, but having seen a reference to a "William Pannill
Carter" as the son of Daniel Carter, I'm beginning to revist this as a
possible connection between my Thornton and this particular Carter family. I
haven't worked the dates out yet -- I think that William P. was born around
1724 (VA) and Thornton was born in 1778 (VA), so William P. would have had to
have been Thornton's grandfather if they're connected at all. Additionally,
there was a Josiah Carter who was descended from Captain Thomas Carter and so
I just keep coming back to the name "Josiah Pennell Carter" as needing to be
a major clue in my search.
If you have actually read this far down in my inquiry, then you truly are a
dedicated and patient man! Here, finally, are my questions:
Do you know the names of William Pannill Carter's children?
Do you know whether or not any of William's direct descendants went to
North
Carolina?
I really appreciate any clues you might be able to provide. The only other
line I've had my eye on is the Giles Carter family which includes another
Thornton Carter (1790, VA), son of Presley Carter, who also moved to NC and
to TN about the same time mine did. However, I don't have any direct
evidence that these two Carters were from the same family.
Thanks again for reading all of this...!! Carolyn