Carpenter-Gay-Hamner Family Papers, 1834-1937

(Manuscript Collection #490)

Title:	Carpenter-Gay-Hamner Family Papers
Creators:	Carpenter family Gay family Hamner family
Repository:	ECU Manuscript Collection
Languages:	English
Abstract:	Papers (1834-1937) including correspondence, land records, Bible records, genealogy notes, and miscellaneous.
Extent:	0.099 Cubic feet, 25 items , correspondence, land records, Bible records, genealogy notes, and miscellaneous.

Accessions Information

March 1, 1984, 25 items; Papers (1834-1937, undated) of Albemarle and Louisa Counties, Va., families, including correspondence, land records, Bible records, genealogy notes, and miscellaneous. Loaned by Mrs. Martha G. Elmore, Greenville, N.C.

November 4, 1997, (unprocessed addition 1), 28 pages; "The Hamners of America" (1938-1975, n.d.) by Edward Delmar Hamner; Hamner family genealogical notes and photographic prints. Photocopied. Typescript and facsimiles. Donor: Mrs. Martha G. Elmore.

Mrs. Martha G. Elmore, (unprocessed addition 2), 4 items, 0.010 cubic feet; Papers (1975-2006, n.d.) of the Hamner - Carpenter family of Albemarle County and Louisa County, Virginia, including genealogical and cemetery records, including genealogical charts, notes and gravestone inscriptions. Photocopies. Typescript and facsimiles. Donor: Mrs. Martha G. Elmore.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions

Copyright Notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Preferred Citation

Carpenter-Gay-Hamner Family Papers (#490), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

Acquisition Information

• Gift of Mrs. Martha G. Elmore
• Loaned by Mrs. Martha G. Elmore

Processing Information

• Processed by C. Crews, April 1991

• Encoded by Apex Data Services

In 1884, William Carey Carpenter (1852-1927), of Louisa County, Va., married Nannie Alberta Gay (1865-1937), daughter of Charles Wingfield and Nancy (Hamner) Gay, of Albemarle County, Va. These papers chronicle events in their lives and those of their families.

Land and tax records of Albemarle and Louisa counties, Va., cover the years 1834 to 1932. Included from Albemarle County are a plat (1857) and tax billings (1854) that list all taxable items including land, white males over twenty-one years, slaves, animals, household goods, revenues, and personal property. The Louisa County land records mainly pertain to Carpenter family deeds but also included is a ten-year lease for farmland (1932). Albemarle County legal documents include records of the settlement of Nicholas Hamner's estate with a listing of the division of household goods and a deed (1874), a 1906 promissory note with record of payment, and Sallie Maddox Gay's handwritten will (1918). Family correspondence (1888) mentions the change in the Sunday church meeting from the first to the fourth Sunday and the pastor's visit and attitude; their flower garden; and chicken and turkey breeding, including the sale of feathers, and the loss of a turkey hen to turkey cholera. Other correspondence (1865, 1884) is oriented to family matters.

Births, deaths, and marriages of the Carpenter family (1820-1906) and the Hamner family (1778-1926) are listed and Charles Wingfield and Nancy (Hamner) Gay family Bible record pages (1821-1894) are also included. Recollections of Samuel Rufus Gay of Lynchburg, Va., link the Gay and Carpenter families to the family of Revolutionary War soldier Edward Garland and present an interesting vignette of family life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Albemarle County region. The collection also includes a commencement program from Lane High School, Charlottesville, Va., May 31, 1937.