Can anyone lend me a hand with confirming a connection between Hester CARPENTER, and James Carpenter of Goshen, Orange County, New York. Hester Carpenter was born at Wyoming, Luzerne, Pennsylvania on 23 September 1799 . She married Elizur Deming of Grand Barrington Massachusetts on 7 July 1818 at Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. She died on 17 August, 1872 in Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Indiana. All of her information comes from records at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lafayette, and from biographies of Elizur, who was locally well-known as a politician (he ran for governor), a Grand Master in the Masons, a church leader, and both a practicing physician, and a professor of medicine. As you can imagine, his credentials rather eclipsed any Hester might have had. They were founding members of St. John's Episcopal Church in Lafayette, although they were probably neither one Episcopalian prior to that time. The history of the early meetings clearly state that of the dozen or so people who participated in the organizing, only 5 or 6 were Episcopalians. Hester and Elizur moved to Ohio shortly after their marriage, first to Milford, then to Chilicothe. The famous Carpenters, Benjamin and Gilbert, and the publicity shy James moved to Delaware County, Ohio, to Sunbury and Galena. James' will lists his wife as Betsy, and his children as John, Benjamin Owen, Esther, Harriet, Mary, and Elizabeth. John Carpenter was recorded as suing the estate of Benjamin Owen Carpenter in Lafayette, so they were both there; Harriet "sister of the wife of Dr. E. Deming, then a practicing physician in Chillicothe" married Thomas Chestnut, and they followed the Demings to Lafayette. Mary married Joseph Yundt, who stood godfather at various times to a number of Lafayette children. Elizabeth married George Gooding, a farmer and trader of Delaware County Ohio, and seems to have remained in Delaware County I feel fairly comfortable that Hester and Esther were the same person, particularly when I look at the names of the Deming children: James Carpenter Deming, Benjamin Owen Deming, and Anna Elizabeth. That Hester is the daughter of James Carpenter of Galena, Delaware, Ohio seems certain. And the clues that suggest the connection to Benjamin and Gilbert Carpenter of Goshen, Wyoming, and Sunbury are very tempting, but I just don't think I can say it with any certainty. >From the Alden Genealogy I find that an Elizabeth Hewitt of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania married James Carpenter of Goshen, Orange, New York in 1798, about a year and a half before Hester's birth. And James was acquiring property in Goshen up until 1798. Then nothing that I found in that set of deeds. The same James? Or a different one. Can anyone help? Thank you, Betsy