We have records of many branches of our family – Carsons, Bryans, Johnsons, Petermans, Guidrys, Fosters, and others – and well over 2300 individuals. We are descended from all of them and more. Recorded history of several branches of the family goes back more than 300 years, and both the Carsons and the Johnsons can be traced all the way back to Adam, if the material in Appendices I, XI, and XII is to be believed. The Carson line comes through the O’Briens and the Irish Monarch Brian Boru, while the Johnson line comes down through the Springers and Charlemagne.

The Carson House

There are several famous people from history mentioned here. The list includes Biblical characters Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, Presidents Adams, Jackson, Kennedy, and Monroe, Old King Cole, Tiberius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Robert the Bruce, frontiersmen Davey Crockett and Sam Houston, scout Christopher “Kit” Carson, poet Geoffrey Chaucer, publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, author Rachel Carson, Union General Sherman, an Indian chief named William McIntosh, St. Patrick, and many, many more.

It’s not unusual to be kin to famous people from long ago. Take Charlemagne for example. He lived approximately 1200 years ago. If there are three generations per century, then there are 36 generations between us and Charlemagne. And we know that each person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. If you work out the mathematics (2 to the 36th power), you’ll discover that you must have had approximately 68,719,000,000 ancestors living at the time of Charlemagne! That’s more than 68 billion people, much more than the entire human population at that time!

Such a large number flies in the face of common sense, but what I have found is that we are related to Charlemagne several different ways, which reduces the number to something much more believable. The point is, it’s not unusual to be descended from Charlemagne or any other individual from long ago, but it is a thrill to discover how we are related, and that’s what this book is about.

This history is from family documents and public records collected by my parents, Charles Ferdinand Carson and Marie Elmer Jackson Carson, my wife, Vivien Elizabeth Johnson Carson, her parents, Carl Eugene Johnson and Louise Kirksey Johnson, library research, the internet, and other miscellaneous sources. The history is still being revised as corrections are made and new information is discovered. It may never be completely finished.

A strict genealogy might say we are born, we marry, we have children, and we die. A scholarly work would be liberally sprinkled with footnotes, and the individuals would each be numbered so that the lineage could be followed without possibility of misinterpretation. That detracts from the readability of history, so I’m deliberately leaving that out, although every effort will be made to keep things clear, and more than 250 sources of information are listed at the end. Since this is a genealogical history, some of the material is unavoidably just a recitation of begats, but I’ve made every effort to make it interesting and readable. Further detail about many of the individuals is simply unavailable, lost in time. Wherever possible, however, additional information to give a more rounded picture of the individuals and their times is included.

To the best of our knowledge, the main part of this work represents true historical fact, but serious researchers should check all of the information for themselves, using primary sources wherever possible. The list of references at the back of the book might be a good starting place. The material in Appendix I, Appendix XI, and Appendix XII may be another matter; that’s why it’s separated from the main part. When various sources disagree, and when I’ve made my own suppositions, I’ve made the reader aware. At this writing, Appendix I, Appendix XI, and the first part of Appendix XII seem to be a blending of historical fact and myth, and it is difficult to determine where legends end and history begins.

Take a moment to study the Contents and Outline. The indentations are intended to show how the families are related. For example, a Patman woman married a Peterman. So did a Springer woman. Then a Peterman woman married a Kirksey. Then a Kirksey woman married a Johnson, as did Smith and Allen women, and then a Johnson woman married a Carson. Note that the Fosters are not indented, because in that case a Carson woman married into the Foster family.

Please don’t overlook the cross-references, those comments in parentheses that say, “See Chapter so-and-so.” They’re the glue that holds the chapters together. Without them, this book is almost a mere collection of unrelated facts.

Finally, I’ll reveal the code: Names in bold indicate direct ancestors of Charles Randall Carson, Catherine Elizabeth Carson Foster, their spouses, and their children.

Enjoy.

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