I found these biographies in a Family Search digitized book, The Carsons of Ballybay. this is the URL as far as I can tell: http://books.familysearch.org/primo_library/libweb You can also access the Books link from the FamilySearch.org main page put the name of your family and locality in the search box and see what comes up. JOHN CARSON My maternal grandfather was born at Longfield, about a mile from Ballibay, County Monaghan, Ireland, on February 1, 1793* His father was a farmer whoname was William Carson. Grandfather was the only son in the family. He had two sisters, Mary and Eleanor. Grandfather received some education. He began to work for himself at about the age of 18 years. He chose the occupation of weaver. He had a loom at home and paid his board to his father. He wove linen material ranging from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred warp. The farm people spun their linen yarn and brought it to market at Ballibay on Saturday. Grandfather was a good judge of linen yarn and attended the market to buy it. He kept men and women spinning and weaving. He was married in November, 1821, to Elizabeth Willson. He had moved with his father from Longfield to Knockamudy still nearer to Ballibay when he was six years old. Uncle William Carson tells a funny story about grandfather's experience at the age of six years with a pipe. He became so sick his father thought he would die. This experience with tobacco sufficed for his entire life. He never used it afterward. Before his marriage he moved to Lac Livery, about eight miles from Creevagh church and about nine miles from Ballibay. He lived here three or four years before he was married. His sister Eleanor kept house for him. He attended church at Creevagh. It is said that Grandfather missed attendance at church only two Sabbaths in sixteen years and walked the entire distance—the round trip making about eighteen miles each Sabbath. He began to farm when he went to Lac Livery, but continued weaving. At Lac Livery were born his children: Henry, Ann, Elizabeth, William, Mary, John. In 1837 Grandfather moved from Lac Livery to Moninton. This brought him closer to church and to Ballibay, and it gave his children a better chance. At Moninton David, Thomas, Isaac (who lived only nine months), Isaac, and Eleanor were born. David died when he was about a year old. >From about 1835 Grandfather acted as "committee man" or deacon in Creevagh church. From 1849 he was an elder. Grandfather liked company. He enjoyed the life of a market day. After a transaction in linen yarn there was "toddy" and a general convivial time. He seems to have been a generous sort of a man and his sympathies were often too easily wrought upon. He gave up weaving about 1849. He was not fond of farm work. He never worked steadily at it. He liked to meet with people and to chat. He liked to visit the sick, though no hand to do anything for them more than to talk to them. Seven of their children preceded them to the United States. These were William, Elizabeth, Mary, Henry, Jane, Isaac, and Eleanor. William, Elizabeth, and Mary came in 1848, Henry and Jane about 1851, Isaac in 1861, and Eleanor in 1866. Grandfather and Grandmother came in 1867. Their son John accompanied them. They stayed with my mother during a winter. They stayed for a time in Washington County. About 1870 they lived on a farm about six miles south of Staunton, Illinois, and in 1871 they went with their son John to Dade County, Missouri, about 250 miles southwest of St. Louis. Here grandfather died September 9, 1872, in the 79th year of his age. ELIZABETH WILLSON CARSON My maternal Grandmother was born at Legacurrie, about a mile and three quarters from Ballibay, County Monaghan, April, 1800. Her father, Henry Willson (or John), was a surgeon, practicing mostly in Ballibay and about County Monaghan. Her mother was Elizabeth Irwen. She came from Rosker, a place in Monaghan County, and was a woman of property, having forty acres of land "forever." Besides my grandmother there were in the family John, Mary, and Ann, Harry, Isaac, and Thomas. They belonged to what was called the "Seceder" church. Her father had a farm, and this afforded the children employment. At the time of my grandmother's marriage, November, 1821, she connected with the Covenanter Church at Creevagh, of which her husband was a member. 8 After the death of her husband, Grandmother Carson made her home with her daughter, Mary Carson Dowzer, at Staunton, I l l i n o i s . She died at the age of 86 years, at which time she could thread a needle, read her Bible and Baxter's Saints' Rest without glasses. She always wore white or lace caps, underneath which was her golden brown hair with few silver threads. She died in 1886, and was buried at Staunton, I l l i n o i s. All the best, Nick Cimino Member, APG www.apgen.org My Blog http://ancestorpuzzles.blogspot.com