----- Original Message ----- From: Donald W. Fisher To: rdwinthrop@a1access.net ; NATIVEAMERICAN-DELMARVA-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, May 06, 1999 9:30 PM Subject: In response to Carter: Civil War era Hello. I am new to the DelMarVa list, so I am not aware of previous discussions. However, your recent posting raised curiosities from my genealogical files. I am working on lines of mixed-blood folks who came from DE to MI in the 1850s. The surnames are mainly Perkins and Counsellor (and other spellings), but include Dean, Sisco, Durham and Sammons. Unfortunately, I have no records of Carter connections. There are some Cartys in Chicago who have married into the Perkins lines, and they are believed to have come from DE. I have in my files papers showing the records of a Thomas Counsellor who was killed in Civil War action 6/17/1864 at PETERSBURG VA. His parents were Elisha Counsellor (d. 3/12/1864) and Rebecca Dean Counsellor; Rebecca remarried to Mitchell Perkins in 1872. Thomas was 17 or 18 at his death. He was in Company C, infantry volunteers of Michigan, having enlisted early in 1864 and having been inducted in April or May. He and his family were located in Fulton Twp., Gratiot Co., MI. I also have papers regarding Rebecca's application for a mother's pension. The death location in your post is what caught my attention. Thomas was not listed as "colored", though he was described in the papers as having hazel eyes, brown hair, and a dark complexion. In the censuses, the family was usually referred to as mulatto. Also, you mentioned that you are in Lansing. Last fall, I visited the State of Michigan Library in Lansing. They have virtually all of the US census records from all of the states for all of the years; they also have both ONT and QUE censuses from Canada. If you aren't aware of this resource on your doorstep, please check it out. I will be travelling to MI in June and plan a couple of days at the library there. While I have an excellent genealogical library here in St. Louis, their holdings of census records doesn't begin to measure up to the library in Lansing. You asked several questions about census records; most of the answers should be available right there in Lansing. That is where I found most of the census info about my DE ancestry and its MI connections. I was completely unaware of any Indian connections regarding Walpole Island and that area. There were DE mixed blood people named Sammons who settled in Dresden ONT just a little to the east of Wallaceburg and Walpole Island. They were from the same DE community as my direct ancestry. And some of my Fisher ancestry (not directly connected with DE Indians except by marriage) is associated with Sandwich outside Windsor and with Chatham - also to the east nearer Niagara Falls. There are many Fishers associated with Lambton Co. and Sarnia, though I cannot at present connect them to my Fishers. About me, you should understand that I live now in St. Louis, MO, but I spent most of my adult life and raised my daughters in Chicago, IL. However, I myself was born and raised in Detroit, leaving there at age 26. It is just coincidence that my daughter has remained in Ann Arbor after attending college and then marrying there. I will spend my time in June visiting them but also chasing down cemeteries and doing some library work in Lansing. I have no data and no known connections with folk named Carter, but if I can be of any help to you, do not hesitate to ask. If you know of Perkins or Counsellor connections, I would be most happy to know about it. Don Donald W. Fisher dwfrft@mindspring.com