Chelsey Smith

By Sheri Kasprzak

Chelsey Smith, a 98-year-old descendant of the Carpenters of Columbus, GA, sits in my grandmother's living room as I prepare to speak with her about roots.

She's a tiny, white-haired lady with a gleam in her bright blue eyes.

"From what I've been told and have been able to trace through the years," she tells me, "the Carpenters were Normans from the north of France."

Chelsey tells me she's been researching the Carpenter family since 1978 and has traced the family back to the famous Norman invasion of England in 1066. The name was derived from wood-workers, not just builders, she notes, pointing her finger at me to make herself clear.

"Now, Samuel Carpenter of Sussex, England, settled in Philadelphia in the late 17th Century, from the records I've looked at," Chelsey tells me. "In about 1780, a gentleman named Wyatt Carpenter immigrated to America with his family, landing at Port Royal, SC. The old man had a large family of both boys and girls. Aboard the ship over, there was a man named Caleb Howard who had two children, a boy and a girl."

Evidently, Chelsey says, the two families became good friends after settling in America and moved north together to North Carolina.

"Just before the war of 1812, Great Britain was grabbing all the young men she could get and forcing them to serve on her ships, claiming they were deserters from the navy. Wyatt and Caleb moved north and west to protect their sons from fighting with the British cause," she says.

Wyatt had a daughter, Chelsey says, who married General Beauregard of Civil War fame. He owned a large plantation in Louisiana and owned many slaves.

Anna Howard, the daughter of Caleb Howard, married Wyatt Carpenter's son William. Carpenter's son Steve married Nancy, a daughter Howard had with a Native American girl after his wife died.

William and Anna had a son they named Steve and Steve and Nancy also had a son named Steve, Chelsey says, her eyes lighting up.

"So to distinguish the two, they called the 'White Steve' and 'Black Steve'."

Black Steve had the features of his Cherokee grandmother.

William and Anna also had George, Jerry, Leander, Ben, Fielding and many other children, Chelsey says.

"Ben was my great-great-grandmother Smith's dad," Chelsey tells me, tying her roots in with my own.

The line goes on and on, Chelsey tells me, and I sense she's getting tired.

"You know, I read somewhere that the Carpenters fought in the religious wars of England and Europe. You've got fighters in your blood."

Sheri Kasprzak is a freelance writer from New Jersey.

Good Ole Days