This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.families.aol.com/mbexec/msg/rw/yBC.2ACI/467.6 Message Board Post: Thanks to all the help from you Thackston researchers, and after doing further research regarding my first posting on the question of the relationship between some Mary Thackston and James Carter of Jackson Co., Tn., I have now come to the conclusion that it was not possible for James Carter to have married any Thackston whatsoever at any time. A thorough search of the Jackson Co., Tn. and Smith Co., Tn. records available- court records, censuses, tax lists, vital records, etc.- shows that there was no other Thackston family nor individual in that area other than Zadock Thackston and his wife and children. Zadock's sister, Mary, did not come to that area, and she was married in VA and stayed there. There is no other elligible Mary Thackston. As for Zadock's daughter, Mary, she was born abt 1805, and she married David Apple and none other. James Carter's first child was born abt 1804 or 1805, and the newborn Mary Thackston could not have been and never was his wife. If a mistake is ever made in genealogy it will live forever. It will even outlive the truth, when a correction is finally made. Still, I know my Carter family's ancestry has been a total mess due to the love of errors, and I want to post this correction so that others who have heard the untruth about the marriage that never occurred can finally have a correct genealogy. There never has been any document produced that any person could read to prove that this James Carter married a Mary Thackston, but there has been a false and irresponsible claim that there was a family Bible record filled out by a descendant of Thackston Carter several generations later that stated this. This Bible record does not exist, and the reporting of this false claim is irresponsible and helping to fill our genealogies with confusion and people that we are not kin to. James Carter married Jane Pate who was close to his age, and who was in Jackson Co. by 1800. I have the proof of this. James Carter's son who was named Thackston Carter was not so named due to the maiden name of his mother. This Thackston Carter had a daughter named Elizabeth Pate Carter- showing also a possibility of Thackston Carter being the son of Jane Pate. Also, James Carter's brother, Richard, had a son named Thackston, and Richard definitely had no marriage to a Thackston. Based on the fact that Zadock Thackston was a Methodist preacher, and the fact that James Carter knew him well in Jackson Co., Tn., I feel that the use of the name Thackston was done out of James Carter's respect and admiration for Zadock. James Carter had even turned to Zadock for a loan in 1820 as evidenced by a deed of trust.