Life History

Notes

• I have had difficulty finding information Benjamin Carpenter.  There are several genealogies with information that cannot be correct.  Most have the date of birth of Benjamin's wife Sarah Elizabeth McFarland as 1768, two years before the birth of her first child! and their marriage as in 1788, after the birth of all the children except the last in 1799.  Of course, no documentation or discussion is included.
  
  There may have been a first wife, and the name Sarah McFarland may not even be correct.
  
  Most genealogies report that both Ben and his wife Sarah McFarland were born in Virginia.  But some have other places, The following genealogy, for instance has what appear to be credible information on Sarah McFarland.  But it has the birthplace of Benjamin as Long Island, New York.  At least one other reports birth in New Jersey.  Other sources for the Carpenters indicate Ben and Sarah (if that was the correct name for his wife) were born in Virginia.  It appears that various genealogies have mixed two or more lines of Carpenters.
  
  Sarah Elizabeth McFarland
  Birth 1750 in Shenandoah, Virginia
  Death 1815 in Anson, North Carolina
  Spouse Benjamin Carpenter 1750-1832
  Birth 1750 in Long Island City, Queens, New York
  Death 1832 in Amherst, Amherst, Virginia
  Son Enoch Carpenter 1770-1824
  --  Krise-Bennett, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/9167840/person/189070690
  
  The death place here in Amherst, Virginia, matches that reported by genealogies reporting his birth in Virginia.  So was our Benjamin Carpenter born in Virginia, or in New York (or elsewhere)
  

Sources

• 1. Ancestry Trees
  • Krise-Bennett, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/9167840/person/189068360
• 2. Family Data Collection - Births
• 3. Ancestry Trees