Dear Pat, As I am sure many will tell you in responding, Southern Carpenters are much harder to trace as the records are not as intact as our Yankee kin. See, this little skirmish known as the War of Northern Aggression caused all type of havoc with record keeping. Also, we were busy settling the frontier, while our northern cousins sat around making things. On a more serious note, I have been working on Isaac Carpenter of NC clan (b. 1764, d. 1837). He was a RS. To date, his ancestry has always been a mystery although the group I am researching with is getting closer to unlocking the mystery. Family legend and a great deal of misinformation on the Net shows "William Fauntleroy Carpenter" to be the father of Isaac linking them to the Cornwall Carpenters of Dr. Nathaniel Carpenter of VA and his brother Corynden Carpenter of Cornwall who left a substantial fortune. My cousin, Donna Jo Wright, along with others hired Peter Wilson Coldham to research this problem when an affidavit of David Carpenter, son of Isaac, surfaced in a trunk in the early 1980's. This affidavit was an attempt to claim Corynden's fortune although the Chancery court denied the claim for lack of evidence. This research is published in an article by Coldham in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. I believe it is in the Winter 1985 edition. Our research has led me to believe that Isaac is a descendant of the Tidewater Carpenters. I hope to publish an article on this research someday. As far as Texas Carpenters, one of Isaac's many sons, Jesse Carpenter, migrated to Chambers Co., AL with his father-in-law, William Threadgill, then on to Pike Co. AL near Troy where he was very successful, owning over 800 acres, a cotton gin, grist mill. Five of his sons fought for the Confederacy. My great grandfather Coleman Nathaniel was in the 15th AL and captured at Gettysburg where he was interned at Pea Pod Island until the end of the war. After the War Between the States, Coleman Nathaniel, Mahone, Andrew, and other brothers GTT (Gone to Texas), like everyone else did. Andrew went to Concho Co, Mahone to Hamilton then to Burnet Co., and Cole to Coryell Co. Mahone and Cole are buried with their families in the Copperas Cove Cemetery in Coryell Co. Hope this provides you with some "Southern Carpenter" info. Louis Carpenter