Saturday, May 11, 2013

James R. Carter had ties to Lancaster County, Nebraska

I love the serendipity of genealogical research, especially when someone points out something right under your nose that you were not looking for and not expecting.  Not quite like winning the lottery but it’s still fun! 

I got one of those this week. 


Portrait and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska published 1888 


I’ve used the Portrait and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska many times.   My great, great grandfather Casper Martin (another branch of the family) is in there along with other shirt-tail relatives.  But an anonymous contributor commented on my January  blog entry “Cousins Die in Camp at Cape Girardeau in 1861” about James R. Carter (cousin of Thomas B. Turpin) and pointed to this Lancaster County history book as the source of more information on James Carter’s family.  Wow!  

The history was published in 1888 and has an entry for Joseph Epps, step-brother to James R. Carter.   The biography states that John and Charlotte Epps’ family consisted of Charlotte’s four children from her marriage to George Carter:  John, Riley, Eliza, and  William Carter;  and Christopher, Rachel, Agnes, Joseph, Mary, and Amanda who were the children of John and Charlotte.

The 1860 census of Warren County, Iowa shows them as John A., James R., E A D J Carter, and Wm E. Carter; and Chris Col, Rachel Agnes, Jos. Andrew, Mary Louisa, and Amanda Chris B J.

For anyone who may be researching that particular branch of the family, Anonymous adds:

It mentions Charlotte EVANS CARTER EPPS and at the time of writing was living in Mitchell, South Dakota ... William Elijah Carter's daughter Minnie Louise was married three times, [to] John H. Raner and had 6 children, William Frederick Holkan (widower with 5 children), and Louis Frederick Karsten in Nebraska.  She died sometime after 1950.  Lou was my great-great-uncle. 

The Portrait and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska is a digitized book and the article on the Epps family can be found at: