Where does the puzzle piece "John K Carson" Fit?

If you've ever wondered what genealogical research is like, think about it like putting together a giant jig-saw puzzle.

But, rather than purchasing a complete puzzle in a box and only having to put it together, this puzzle has had all of it's peices, as well as all the peices to all the other puzzles, spilled out and placed into numerous boxes. Some of these boxes are easy to find, and some are hidden away. Some are labelled, and some are not. Some are easy to open, and some require that you complete some task or pay a fee. Some of the peices have been purposely changed over time, and some of them were changed by accident. Some of the boxes have burned, and some have been pilfered. How long will it take to complete that puzzle?

Genealogical research is like that to me. I just keep searching, knowing that their are more peices, but it's unlikely that I'll find them all.

In my last posting I gave you one of those peices, specifically, information about the marriage of John K Carson and Rachel Truax. But how do John and Rachel fit into the overall puzzle? One way of describing how they are related to me is with an Ahnentafel Report.

In simple terms, an Ahnentafel Report lists someone's ancestors in a concise manner. I prefer to produce reports beginning with my grandparents. As you can see from the report that I show below, this particular Ahnentafel Report begins with my grandfather, Chester Carson, and ends with John K Carson. It's only two generations in length because I'm not certain of his Great-Great Grandfather. I believe the next link in the Carson chain is William Carson. If I'm right, he was born in Ireland and married a woman from Germany. However, I have much work to do to prove this. If you can help, please do!

I can also produce a complete Ahnentafel Report for Chester that goes back to his 7G-Grandparents (seven Great's in front of Grandparents), which includes many of the branches that had to come together to make it possible for Chester to be born. That list ends with Philippe Antoni Du Trieux, born abt 1586, probably in Roubaix, Dept. du Nord, France. It is believed that Philippe Antoni died in New Amsterdam, on 8 Sep 1653 at the age of about 67. He married Susanna du Chesne on 17 Jul 1621 when he was 35, in Leiden, Holland. Susanna du Chesne, was born in 1601 in Sedan, Lorraine, France. Susanna died after 1654 when she was about 53.

For now, here is the list of the known Carson ancestors of Chester:

Ahnentafel Report beginning with Chester Carson
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1 Chester Bernard Lloyd James Carson. Born on 15 Jan 1904 in Iola, Allen County, Kansas. Died in Brentwood, Prince Georges County, Maryland, on 7 Jan 1978; he was 73. Buried about 9 Jan 1978 in Fort Lincoln Cemetery, Bladensburg, Prince Georges County, Maryland.

On 5 Jun 1926 when 22, he married Kathleen May Rogers, in Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, North Carolina.


Parents of Chester Carson
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2 William Bernard Lloyd (WL) Carson. Born on 19 Aug 1880 in Hancock, Maryland. Died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 5 Feb 1974; he was 93.

In 1902 when 21, he married Maude Deleilah James.

3 Maude Deleilah James. Born in May 1882 in Hagerstown, Maryland or Virginia. Died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after 28 Apr 1930; she was about 47.


Grandparents of Chester Carson
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4 John K Carson. Born on 31 Oct 1851 in Hancock, Washington County, Maryland. Died in Steamboat, Routt County, Colorado, on 7 Aug 1927; he was 75. Buried on 11 Aug 1927 in Hinton Cemetery, Caddo County, Oklahoma, USA.

On 23 Mar 1875 or 24 Mar 1876 when 24, he married Rachel Frances Truax, in Warfordsburg, Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

5 Rachel Frances Truax. Born on 29 Dec 1852 in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Died in Peabody, Marion Co, KS, in 1907; she was about 54. Buried in Oct 1907 in Hinton Cemetery, Caddo County, Oklahoma, USA.

6 John MacNeil James. Born on 16 Feb 1843 in Roanoke County, Virginia. Died in Redwood, Franklin County, Virginia, on 4 Dec 1931; he was 88. Buried in Vinton, Virginia.

On 24 Dec 1867 when 24, he married Mary Elizabeth Amos, in Bedford County, VA.

7 Mary Elizabeth Amos. Born in Apr 1843 in Virginia. Died bef 1920; she was thought to be about 76.

The Marriage of John K Carson and Rachel Truax

I read recently that if you stop and think about your family heritage mathematically, you quickly realize that you are not simply the result of two people who came together for a time, you are the result of many, many people and millions, or billions, of life decisions that resulted in you.

In my case, John K Carson and Rachel Truax are one set of Great-Great Grandparents. They are only two of my sixteen great-great grandparents. Why sixteen? If I start with my two parents and then multiply each generation by their two parents, then you can see that we all have four grandparents, eight grandparents, sixteen great grandparents, etc. If you are lucky enough to go back 20 generations, which represents about 500 years, then you would find that you have 1,048,576 people to thank directly.

As for John and Rachel, I am thankful that they cared enough for each other to marry during a March wedding in the late 1800's. There are records that indicate that the precise date was either March 23, 1874, sometime in 1875, or March 24, 1876.

The earliest date is listed on several genealogy web-sites.

The middle date is provided in Rachel's obituary (see below). It states, "Rachel F., daughter of Stillwell and Rachel Truax, was born in Pennsylvania in 1852 and was married to J.K. Carson in 1875."

The 1876 date is recorded in a booklet called "Fulton County, Pennsylvania Marriages prior to 1885" by William O. Turner. He writes, from Fulton County Newspaper records, that "Carson, John of Bethel Twp marries Truax, Rachel F. of Bethel on 24 Mar 1876". Twp is an abbreviation for Township.

Which is to believed? Since the newspapers, from which the later date is extracted, recorded the information closer to the actual event than the obituary, and since there is no source documentation mentioned on the various web-sites, I believe the latest date.

UPDATED 2 April 2005: I received a copy of the Fulton County Newspaper wedding announcment for the marriage of John and Rachel. Under the heading “MARRIED”, on an unspecified page, eight marriages are listed, the sixth of which is:

“CARSON-TRUAX-At the home of the bride, near Warfordsburg, this county, March 23d, 1876, by the Rev. R. Arthur, Mr. John Carson and Miss Rachel F. Truax, all of Bethel township, this county."

Carson Family Genealogy

I plan to post portions of my genealogy research to this web-site as a test.

I will consider the test successful, and continue posting if one or more of the following occur:
1) Other family members find it interesting and/or useful.
2) It helps me to better understand my family history through the comments of others. Or...
3) As a result of the thought process of creating these posts I discover errors in my research, realize that there are avenues of research unexplored, or others identify new avenues of research to me.

Please provide feedback by making comments (simply click on the word "Comments", following any one of my postings, or e-mail me directly). I would love to hear how you like the postings and if you have information or stories to share.