Scope and arrangement

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, enslaved persons, 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.

Administrative information

Custodial History

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. [Later became a gift.]

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.

July 25, 2007, (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.

May 2, 2015, (unprocessed addition 3), 20 items, 0.08 cubic feet; Addition contains items related to Roberta Gay Carpenter including an undated program (early 1900s) for a play given at Plain Dealing (Lousia Co., Virginia), a detailed contract (1908) for her to teach at Churchville High School in Augusta Co., Virginia, and an invitation (1916) for her wedding to Garland H. Spicer, Sr.; correspondence from relatives with her mother Nannie Alberta Gay Carpenter (1911-1935, n.d.); a 1931 certificate stating there was no inheritance tax on the estate for Nannie's husband W. C. Carpenter who died in 1926; and 1991 photographs of recently cleaned off stones at the Plain Dealing Homeplace cemetery and a 2006 listing of the stones in that cemetery. Donor: Mrs. Martha G. Elmore

April 4, 2018, (unprocessed addition 4), 0.25 cubic feet; Addition includes photocopy of A Brief History of The Hanmer/Hamner Family in Wales & Colonial Virginia by James Edward Hamner III and Catherine Anne Clark Hamner (1991); notes related to a visit to the Hamner Family Cemetery (Carter's Bridge Cemetery) in Albemarle Co., Virginia, in 2000, plus a listing of gravestones there; Hamner family genealogy notes and family group sheets; clippings and family group sheets related to the Gay family of Albemarle Co., VA; and correspondence (1933-1971) related to the Carpenter family of Louisa County, VA.; listing of Carpenter gravestones in Bethpage Christian Church cemetery in Mineral, VA; and a document showing old Gay, Garland, and Hamner home sites in Albemarle County, VA. Donor: Mrs. Martha G. Elmore

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Martha G. Elmore

Processing information

Processed by C. Crews, April 1991

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023

Copyright notice

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

Key terms

Family Names

Carpenter family
Gay family
Hamner family

Topical

Deeds--Virginia--Albemarle County
Deeds--Virginia--Louisa County

Places

Albemarle County (Va.)--Genealogy
Louisa County (Va.)--Genealogy
Virginia--Social life and customs--19th century

Container list