"Cracked"      

       

(Author's note: None.)

As always, unapologetically unedited.

Honestly, it gives me a headache. I don't know if the throb just behind my right ear is because of it, or if my head just aches because of that continued wish for some sort of Pavlovian dopamine drip-to-rush of discovery. Perhaps it's the grainy snake of the script or the misnumbered text that seduces my eyes to the pursuit of meaning in oblivion? Is genealogy then addictive? Oh, Hell yes. And addictive in the worst way. Everything about it and its accompanying pursuit is in many ways the ultimate egotism. After all, like the proverbial idiot's vanity, how can one not be mesmerized by the possibility of an image or story of oneself—or, on that rare crossover event, the story of someone else whom the limited acumen of that same vanity might happen to find in those same fields of Narcissus?

Yeah, and I wonder why my head hurts? Seriously?

 

Above: Flyleaf - Colchester, Connecticut, Church Records

 

Nevertheless, for those of you that might read my genealogical missives and drivel from time to time, I thought I'd take a moment to show you kind of what some of it look like. Ya know, so you can see where the Great Gateway Drugs of "Indexes and Transcriptions" (if not Bible records and gravestones) drive one further into the madness, and compel one to seek out the "better highs" of only original proof documentation. 

(It was so much easier when I was simply addicted to cocaine in the 80s.)

In light of this, I got to thinking about my "present project" that is my quest to input "Mom" into the annals of published genealogical academia. Believe me, it isn't that mom isn't already there. She is. Her own mother's Sage ancestry is beautifully done like a fine tapestry- no thanks to me. She's just not there in the way of those "indirect lines," or in my own personal way of paying homage to her. And well, let's face it, her connection to two of the woman hung at Salem in 1692 for witchcraft is way more interesting than your average genealogical headache. Believe me, it isn't everything. However, by the time I am through with this rambling ass post I wanna be able to show you just how it isn't everything. I want to be able to show you just maybe a couple of these other genealogical dopamine rushes I've stuck in the old crack pipe along the way.

When I come upon these "moments of time" I never cease to be amazed by the moments of someone else's tomorrow.

See what you think. Maybe you can see why the headache (nor the addiction) never seems to go away. 

It all seems to start in a place like this:

Above: Block image search from FamilySearch.com times 100,000 plus

But as usual, I digress. I'm gonna shut-up about all that genealogical headache business for now. Let's return to the matter at hand. My Mom, and her ties to Salem.

Here's the refresher course:                     

As some of you know, I've been working on identifying one specific branch of Mom's lines to one of those Salem gals, a gal by the name of Martha Allen Carrier, and those to her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth "Betsey" Carrier who married Roswell Russell- a descendant of that other gal also hung out to dry, Rebecca Towne Nurse. Now it would put you all to sleep BIG TIME to go through the ins and outs of it all, and let's face it, I'm sure you need to mow the grass or stuff some Bell peppers for dinner instead. However, what I thought I'd do is to show you part of where I have been going with all of this. I show this to you not so much so you might follow the genealogy but more so that you can see a couple of those AHA! moments along the way. 

Yeah, you already knew I was nuts. Peace out. 

Anyway, the goal here is: "to tell the story as it was told the first time" in living (or "dead" as the case may be) color, and if you will not mind the insult to that great story teller, a bit in the style of my mentor, the great and indomitable Dr. Seuss.

Hang in there with me if you dare...

It is after all, a witch's tale.

Enter the witch Martha:

Above: The start of it all. A church records notation of the marriage of Thomas Carrier (sometimes called Thomas Morgan) to Martha Allen and a notation of the birth of their son Andrew.

   

Above: A subsequent record of Andrew's son Andrew, [Jr.]

For me though, it really starts to get interesting with Andrew Carrier [Jr.], and his wife Rebecca. (See image below)

Now I don't know about you, but I gotta wonder about poor grandma Rebecca (Rockwell) Carrier and what she had to confess to. The script is too thick, archaic, and convoluted for me to tell much about just exactly why dear Grandma Rebecca Carrier had to state:

"I believe so with shame and blushing to come Before God..."

Yikes. It must have been a doozy of a sin to get the better part of a whole page in the confession book in February of 1749. She must be glad (wherever she is) that the most of us can't read the script her confession 275 years later. Personally, I think that whatever she did that we could give her a break after all this time. Dang, girl, it couldn't have been all that bad to do "blushing!" LOL.

But maybe it was?

Then, of course, what happened next, well, that

 remains to be seen, but it looks like Andy and Rebecca loaded up their kids, and may have got out of the town of Colchester after all that blushing business. It's a good thing their boy Isaac Carrier was already baptized in 1744 - or maybe that was what the whole blushing event was all about?

Just sayin...

Above: Baptism record for my ancestor Isaac Carrier son of Andrew Carrier, Jr.

Above: The Will of Andrew Carrier, Jr. where he names his wife Rebekah and his son Isaac

But our boy Isaac though, that is Andy and Rebecca's son, he did okay. About 1773, he found a nice girl - a cousin of sorts - and they got married. Andrew and Rebecca Carrier's son married a girl by the name of

Elizabeth Adams. 

Now before I get too far, I need to mention that Grandma Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier had had a hard start in life. She was raised by her grandparents as her own parents David Adams and Margery (Williams) Adams died when she was just a baby herself.

Check out those dates of death for Mom and Dad Williams:

Above: The birth record for Elizabeth Adams who married Isaac Carrier - alongside the death record of her parents

In case you are wondering how this couple, that is Isaac Carrier and Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier met and fell in love, well, duh, their parents went to the same church together - or at least they did so back in the day before all that "blushing business" came out back in '49. The image below shows Andrew and Rebekah Carrier and David Adams and Margery Adams all in one fell swoop.

Now I haven't found an exact copy of Isaac Carrier's marriage to Elizabeth Adams. But there is more than one way to skin a cat, right? In the image below, we can see Isaac and Elizabeth receiving her portion of her father David Adams' estate. So while I am looking for that marriage record, I've got a nice receipt that ties both Isaac Carrier to Elizabeth Adams, and further on back.

Chicken dinner.

And for any of you naysayers at the National Genealogical Society that will proclaim that this "simply isn't enough," here you go- below is a nice fat 1775 deed from Colchester, Connecticut, and signed paying homage to King George himself, whereby Isaac Carrier and Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier are selling off some of Grandpa Adams' land. They are likely tired of all that "blushing drama" in Colchester and all that whispering behind their backs.  

They probably figured it is time to get out of town. 

I think Isaac Carrier and his lovely wife Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier needed a fresh start. All that Revolutionary War business was probably getting to them, and from what I can tell, they were more than deeply religious. And while I still think I need a Litchfield County, Connecticut deed showing "Isaac Carrier formerly of Colchester" I am comfortable saying that the couple winds up in Colebrook, CT, just down the road where, by 1795, they have helped to start a new church as founding members.

                                      

                                                

Now I gotta tell you, life in Colebrook for Isaac and Elizabeth wasn't gonna last. I think they were starting to get older, and their kids decided to move out of state to New York. Kids, right? Go figure.

So about 1796ish Isaac and Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier decide to follow three of their sons to a place called Liberty, Sullivan County, New York, where their daughter, who also happened to be named (wait for it) Elizabeth (we will call her "Betsey") and her new husband Roswell Russell will also soon migrate to- about 1798-ish.

Then a little bit of bad news. Grandpa Isaac Carrier dies in 1806.

                        

Above: Daughters of the American Revolution records for the death of Isaac Carrier

Undaunted by Isaac's death, his wife Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier does the only thing she knows how to do best. Heck, she helps start a new church- see image below:

In between all of that, or afterwards, Isaac and Elizabeth's grandson wrote down their vital records as he remembered them in the family Bible - image below.

But as you can see, even Elizabeth (Adams) Carrier would, in the end, succumb to the Great Reaper. 

(Image below)

For the most part, the story ends here with the birth of Betsey Carrier shown in the Bible record above. She is the crux of the line, and indeed the one that needs more proof beyond the anecdotal. She is the one I have been working on, and (cue the head ache) will hopefully somehow resolve.

I've already written about Elizabeth "Betsey" Carrier (Russell) (Grant) in a previous post so I don't want to put you to sleep any further. If you are curious - it's here:

https://atroubledsage.blogspot.com/2026/08/beyond-neversink-and-dearborn-witch.html

       

Above: Judith McGhan's 1983 Genealogies of Connecticut Families by George Ely Russell

                   

Above: Dearborn County, Indiana, Church Records - receiving "Elizabeth Grant" by letter.

Suffice it to say that there is enough documentation to link this generation's  Elizabeth Carrier (Betsey (Carrier) (Russell) Grant) shown in the above image on down the line to Mom. Notwithstanding an old spell book or two that Nana may have misplaced along the way, the lineage generally holds. My goal here hasn't been genealogical though. My goal in this post has been to show where some of this lineage comes from, where it hides, and that incredible feeling of discovery- that after looking through hundreds of pages of church records on the off chance you might find something - and then you do - it is indeed why this blog is called: The Last Aha!

It's all in the moment.

Just like they were.

☮