Hello, I would really appreciate the Carter Census records. I've just
recently been able to place my Elizabeth Jane b. 1939 in Indiana;
Father born in Ohio, Mother in Pennsylvania. "Lizzie" married first to
James JOHNSON~he divorced her in Iroquois County and she married
Scott S. ETHINGTON b. Fountain County, Indiana and they raised their
family in Grand River Township, De Kalb County, Missouri.
That is my only CARTER information at this time. *This information is
provided thru Scott's pension papers*
----- Original Message -----
From: Katherine Kurtz <kkurtz(a)iol.ie>
To: <CARTER-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 2:08 AM
Subject: [CARTER-L] Carter Mystery Man
> Also-- it might be a good time for the person who so helpfully
posted the
> data back in 1998/99, to remind people which all-Carter census
records are
> available in the Carter archives, and how to access them-- they are
a gold
> mine!
>
> ~Elizabeth
> (Enos B Carter b:1819, Wilson Co TN > Graves/Ballard Co KY)
Yes!
I'm temporarily shelving the search for my grandfather, Bentley
Frederick Carter of GA, and am following a lead that he may actually
be a Benjamin F. Carter, born in April 1861 in Madison Co., OH.
Here's why.
By 1900, Benjamin F. was in Atlanta, where my B.F. Carter was.
Benjamin F. appears in the 1900 and 1910 census for Atlanta, along
with a wife, Hattie B. Turner Carter (b. Dec 1865 in OH, mar. Dec. 15,
1883 in Madison Co., OH), and children Eddie (b. Dec. 1884), Frannie
(b. Nov. 1886), Robie (b. Sept. 1889), Earl T. (b. Jan. 1899), and
Donald (b. 1902 in GA).
The Atlanta Directory for 1911 lists Carter Benjamin F.
(Hattie)--which obviously is the man in the 1900 and 1910 censuses.
In the 1919 directory, he's still there--but not Hattie. It would
appear that they had separated by then, because in the 1920 census,
daughter Frannie had married a Charles C. Elder, and was living with
him, her brother Donald, and their mother Hattie in Savannah. I have
someone checking the Savannah directories to see where *that* trail
leads.
Meanwhile, my grandfather (who we know had been married before), known
to my mother and grandmother as Bentley Frederick Carter, had married
my grandmother (Alma Irene Mulligan) in 1919--I have the marriage
certificate. Their wedding announcement in the Atlanta Constitution
(which I also have) says that they planned to make their home
in....Savannah.
The major hiccup in this theory--that the divorced or separated (or
maybe even bigamous) Benjamin F. Carter might have reinvented himself
as Bentley Frederick Carter, and then gone by BF Carter to further
muddy the waters of scandal--is that my BF Carter died in Dec. 1931,
supposedly in Atlanta. At least that's what my mother has always
believed. (But she was only 6 at the time, and she was 12 when her
mother died.) The only death record I've found that *might* be her
father, under either of his incarnations, is a Ben Carter who died in
Dec. *1933* in MacDuffie Co. GA.
How could this be reconciled? It's stretching a bit to suggest that
my BF Carter simply dropped out of sight in 1931 and then died two
years later--but it could have happened. (Putting the most innocent
slant on things, he could have been hit by a car, in a coma for two
years and then died--some scenario like that.) My grandmother was
told of his death by his brother (name unknown) by phone, in Miami,
and never went north to check. (By the time she'd reached his
brother, after he hadn't shown up for several weeks after he was
expected, she was coldly told that he'd been dead and buried for 3
days.) She dug in her heels, sold the house and family silver, put
the money into a trust for her two children (my uncle was not yet
two), and went to work.
Obviously, there was bad blood between my grandmother and her
husband's family. Whether it was simply resentment of a new, younger
wife replacing the first one, or whether there was actual scandal
attached, I have no idea. (There have always been vague hints of some
kind of skeleton in the closet--even suggestions that the first wife
might have been in an institution--though divorce was sufficiently
scandalous in those days.)
So I'm looking for Hattie B. Turner Carter and her children: Eddie,
Frannie (Mrs. Charles C. Elder), Robie, Earl, and Donald E.
Does any of this ring any bells for anyone on this list? Any ideas on
where to take these theories next?
I'm determined to find this man. I'm reasonably certain that Bentley
Frederick Carter didn't just drop onto the planet in November/December
of 1919 to marry my grandmother! :-)
Anyone with ideas can please e-mail me direct at kkurtz(a)iol.ie.