Relay – A Family History Blog

After several attempts to organize this research I ultimately decided to  start with what I am absolutely sure of and then work both directions from there.  I first encounter the Carson family when researching the Isaac Savage family of Hallowell, Maine and Jackson County Ohio.

Between 1771 and 1773 – three Carson individuals published marriage intentions in Hallowell, Kennebec County, Maine.

• 1771 – Jennet published intentions to marry John Gray ¹ (but the marriage apparently didn’t take place as John married someone else in 1773 and in 1788 Adam recorded a deed in Kennebec County wherein he gave the eastern half of the lot to his 4 unmarried daughters – Janet/Jennet, Elizabeth, Anne and Sarah.²
• 1772 – William published intentions to marry Hannah Savage, daughter of Isaac Savage.³
• 1773 – Alice published intentions to marry Joseph Savage, brother of Hannah and son of Isaac Savage. ⁴

In the marriage intentions the parents of all three are listed as Adam and Alice (Elice/Elise/Alise) Carson. Using these dates and names as a starting point I began the hunt for the Carson family of Hallowell, Maine.

Phase One – Moving forward in Maine –

From the Lincoln County land records it appeared that Adam and Alice were possibly newly settled in Hallowell when their children began contracting marriages. Adam first appears when he sells land to George Fitzgerald and John Gray in 1771⁵ that he had apparently bought directly from the proprietors at an earlier time.   But there were others of the surname earlier in the Lincoln County deeds, Hatevil Carson having purchased land in Wiscasset in 1760 and Samuel Carson in 1771.  There is also a John Gray and William Carson connection in the deed books with a partnership land purchase in 1772. ⁶ Apparently there was a connection of some sort between the Carson family and John Gray but for whatever reason that connection was not solidified by marriage.

Adam and his family including son William and son-in-law Joseph Savage were clearly thinking of leaving Hallowell by 1778 when Adam, William and Joseph signed a petition⁷ regarding a grant of land for the town of “Sandy River”, later Farmington.  Alice Carson appears to have died before November 1783 when she did not sign or release dower in Adam’s deed of sale of his Hallowell land to Noah Woodward.⁸ Interestingly in that deed, Adam reserved a quarter acre of that land as a burial place and provided for his family to “pass and repass where it shall do the least harm.” Perhaps Alice is buried on that land in Hallowell.  Adam moved from Hallowell to Canaan, now in Franklin County, between the land sale of 1783 and a deed of 1787 when Adam sold his land in Canaan to his son Ephraim (I have been unable to discover when Adam purchased the land originally.)⁹

Adam also appears on the 1800 census ¹⁰ in Canaan, Maine as a male over age 45 with 4 females between 20 and 45 living in his household, presumably his unmarried daughters.

According to various town histories of Canaan and Skowhegan, unsourced as usual, Adam Carson died at the age of 99 or 102 or several other advanced ages.  All of these appear to be unsubstantiated and I assume this is the “he’s so incredibly old so he must be 100” syndrome. I am confident he appears in the 1800 census but not the 1810 census, not even as an aged man in the household of either Ephraim Carson or any other Carson’s in Canaan. Unsourced online websites indicate a death date in 1808 which does not seem unreasonable but for which I have no evidence. Given his known children’s birth years – clustered between 1749 and 1762 – and assuming that his marriage to Alice (see next paragraph) was his first – a more likely birth-year range is 1720 to 1725 or so. Which would make him roughly 88 at death in 1808. Pretty old but no where near 102.

Phase Two – Pushing backwards in Maine and into New Hampshire

Adam Carson and Alice Alexander were married and the parents of at least 3 adult children when they first made their appearance in the Hallowell records.  So where did they come from? Are there records for them in any other Maine county?  What about neighboring colonies?

There are no other records in Maine counties for Adam Carson/Corson/ Courson.  There are other Carson/Corson/Courson entries in the Vital Records for York County between 1769 and 1718 but nothing that can be definitively traced to Adam.  However, there are clear records for Adam in New Hampshire in the counties immediately adjoining Maine.

Adam Carson married Elice Elexander aka Alice Alexander in the First Church of Nottingham (now Hudson), Hillsborough County in 1746.¹¹

And this is where it gets speculative again.