Casey County, Kentucky. Will Book 1 (1809-1866) -- will of Catharine Carpenter, pp. 468-474, dated 27 May 1846, proved 10 Apr 1848 (Ancestry 9066, film 004819947, images 253-256 of 568)

Will Book 1 pp. 468-474; film 004819947 images 253-256 of 568; margin 'Catharine Carpenter's Will'

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WILL READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT IMAGE 8 Sep 2026 at full resolution (register K543; 13 image bands on disk at ancestry/sources/casey-lincoln-ky-trip-2026-09-08/catharine-carpenter-will-1846-casey-wb1-pp468-474/). Casey County, Kentucky, Will Book 1 pp. 468-474 -- Ancestry 'Kentucky, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1774-1989' (dbid 9066), Casey > 'Wills, Vol 1-2, 1809-1866', film 004819947, images 253-256 of 568 (the same 568-image filming as FamilySearch 'Casey, Kentucky. Wills 1809-1866'). Original county clerk's record book. Located through the Casey 'General Index to Wills' (film 004817407, image 9: 'Carpenter Catharine -- will 1/472'). OPENING (p. 468, margin 'Catharine Carpenter's Will'): 'I Catharine Carpenter of Casey County and State of Kentucky being in usual health & of sound mind and disposing memory do make publish and ordain this my last will and testament'. Items 1-4: $700 in trust to 'my friend James A. Fisher'; manumission of Joseph and, on emigration to Liberia, the other enslaved people, who are NAMED on pp. 468-469 (not transcribed here; see the images). THE CLAUSES THAT STATE THE PARENTAGE. Item 7 (p. 469-470), land bought of Randolph Peyton 'lying in Casey County Kentucky on the head waters of the Big South Fork of the Rolling Fork of Salt River' to Joseph for life, then sold, 'the proceeds to be equally divided amongst my nine Legatees herein after named the Children of my Last Husband Adam Carpenter'. Item 9: all other lands sold, proceeds 'equally divided among my nine legatees as herein after named the children of my last Husband Adam Carpenter'. Item 15 (p. 471-472), the residue 'be divided among my nine Legatees the children of my last Husband Adam Carpenter equally share and share alike (to wit) my deceased son William Carpenter's Children are to have one share to be equally divided among them share and share alike, George Carpenter, Conrad Carpenter, Adam Carpenter and Henry Carpenter, Christiana Funk formerly Christiana Carpenter..., Margaret Carter formerly Margaret Carpenter who married Shadrack Carter and Catharine Dinwiddie formerly Catharine Carpenter who married William Dinwiddie each one share, Sally Cunningham formerly Sally Carpenter who married Ephraim Cunningham one share'. Item 17 (p. 472): 'I do hereby appoint my sons George Carpenter, Conrad Carpenter, Adam Carpenter and Henry Carpenter Executors of this my last will and testament'. Item 18: 'my three sons George Carpenter, Adam Carpenter and Henry Carpenter Executors' to convey to 'my son Conrad Carpenter' the tract sold him 'in Casey County ... near to Mulloy's(?) Gap', the contract 'in the hands of my son Henry Carpenter'. Item 19 (p. 473), lapse clause: 'either of my nine Legatees the Children of my last Husband Adam Carpenter' dying without issue, the share goes to 'the Balance of my nine Legatees the Children of my Last Husband Adam Carpenter as aforesaid or their Descendants'. THE FRYE CHILDREN (her first marriage). Item 11: 'I will and devise to my son John Frye the sum of Twenty Dollars which is all that I intend him to have of my Estate.' Item 12: 'I will and devise to my Daughter Leah Carpenter's Children formerly Leah Frye and who married Jacob Carpenter twenty Dollars which is all that I intend them to have of my Estate'. Item 13: daughters 'Sally Cunningham formerly Sally Carpenter who married Ephraim Cunningham, and Christiana Funk formerly Christiana Carpenter who first married Nathaniel Spraggins and after his death married Daniel Funk' take $125 each first, to equalise advancements; Item 14 and Item 20: George Carpenter (and substitutes) trustee for Sally. Item 16: the executors hold the deceased son William's children's share at 6% until 21. EXECUTION (p. 474): 'In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty seventh day of May 1846. Witness William E Darley, Will F Lee(?), Jno Ely. Catharine (her X mark) Carpenter (seal).' PROBATE (p. 474): 'At a county court held for Casey County on the 10th day of April 1848 the foregoing instrument of writing purporting to be the last will and testament of Catharine Carpenter Dec'd was produced to the court and proved by the oaths of Wm E Darley & Jno Ely witnesses thereto ... ordered to be recorded. Attest Joel Sweeney Clk.' ⚠ The Carpenter book (p. 40) gives 'May 7, 1846'; the image reads 'twenty seventh'. The image governs. WHAT IT PROVES HERE: for [216] Adam Carpenter (1804-1877) both halves -- MOTHER [734] Catharine (the testatrix: 'my sons ... Adam Carpenter') and FATHER [733] Adam Carpenter Sr ('the children of my last Husband Adam Carpenter') -- stated in one instrument. Owen graded BOTH PARENTS = DIRECT on 8 Sep 2026; the grade, the five identity legs (C6950, K545, [750] William DINWIDDIE Carpenter, the F325 sibship, and the K548/K549 census count: exactly one adult Adam Carpenter in Casey Co. in 1840 and 1850, and he is [216]) and the nine-vs-ten note ([738] Mary b. 1792 is the F325 child not among the nine legatees) are in this Audited note. ⛔ WHAT THE WILL DOES NOT ESTABLISH, so nobody re-hunts it: it names neither Catharine's own parents (George and Christina Spears stay INFORMANT on the KHS finding aid) nor Adam Sr.'s; it names no grandchild of Jacob x Leah Carpenter by name, so it does not reach [956] directly; and it does not itself say WHICH Adam Carpenter is 'my son Adam' -- the identity rests on the legs above, not on the will. Ring-7 riders, read not graded: [1004] Leah Frye <- [734] MOTHER ('my Daughter Leah Carpenter ... formerly Leah Frye'), F391's marriage stated by the bride's mother, and [3366] 'my son John Frye'.

D.A.R. Genealogical Records Committee lineage form (Carpenter/Fry/Spears), in 'United States. Genealogies 1720-1960', FamilySearch DGS 008978994, v.3-4/516-517, images 407-408

D.A.R. lineage form - Leah Fry b. Nov 1778, m. Jacob Carpenter, d. 11 Jan 1820

Form read on the image (G1/G1a). Death 11 Jan 1820 matches this tree exactly. CONFLICT recorded, not resolved: the form's birth 11 Nov 1778 vs the tree's 20 Nov 1778 - 9 days apart, do not overwrite. Child of John Fry x Catherine Spears per the form's children table (alignment caveat in register G1a).

Kentucky Secretary of State, Land Office - Virginia Patent Series and Lincoln County Entries (web.sos.ky.gov/land/): Treasury Warrants 242 and 246, patents VA 0688.0, 8790.0 and 8791.0, and Lincoln County entries 357, 358, 794, 1338, 1339 and 3227

Warrant 242 packet 6 pp. (imgctr 36192); patent 8791.0 packet 4 pp. (imgctr 36193); patent 0688.0 packet 3 pp. (imgctr 27262); Lincoln County Entries books 1-2

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READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT 18 Sep 2026, free and unwalled, no sign-in (registers K715, K717, K718, K719); the Lincoln County entries read on the Land Office's structured index, NOT the manuscript, because the entry images are .tif and the browser cannot decode them (register K716). WARRANT 246 / PATENT VA 0688.0, Grant Book 2 p. 26: 'Benjamin Harrison Esquire Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia ... by virtue and in consideration of part of a Land office Treasury Warrant Number 246 and Issued the 15th day of October 1779 There is Granted by the said Commonwealth unto John Fry a certain Tract or parcel of Land containing one hundred Acres by Survey bearing date the twenty first day of June one thousand seven hundred and eighty one lying and being in the County of Lincoln on Carpenters creek a branch of Green River ... Beginning at a large Beech on the Top of a Hill about three miles South West from Carpenters Station'. Verso: 'Retd 3d June 1782 ... Grant Issd 5th December 1783'. ⛔ NAMES NO HEIRS although it issued after his death. WARRANT 242, SURVEY 16 Apr 1784 (patent VA 8790.0, p. 3): 'Surveyed for George Speare 200 Acres of land in the county of Lincoln on part of a Treasury Wt No 242) lieing on Carpenters creek a branch of Green River begining at a Sugartree & black oak at A the No East corner of John Frys Upper Survey of 150 as ... thence S80E 213 1/2 pole Striking Frys corner And with his line to the begining corner at A', and 'Near a line of Carpenters'. WARRANT 242, ASSIGNMENT (p. 4): 'For a valuable Consideration to me well and truly in hand paid, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, I do hereby assign, transfer and make over the within Plat or Survey of 200 Acres of Land unto Leah Fry to her and to her heirs and assigns for ever, And do hereby request the Register of the Land Office to issue a Grant in the said Leah Frys name for ye said 200 Acres of Land' - George Spear, seal; test. Jacob Copelin. ⚠ ITS DATE LINE IS FADED PAST LEGIBLE READING. WARRANT 242, GRANT, Grant Book 5 pp. 544-545: 'Patrick Henry esquire governor ... there is granted by the said Commonwealth to Leah Fry assee of George Spears a certain tract or parcel of Land containing two hundred acres by survey bearing date the 16th day of April 1784 ... on Carpenters Creek ... Beginning at a sugar tree & black Oak the north east corner of John Frys upper survey of one hundred & fifty acres ... to have and to hold ... to the said Leah Fry & her heirs forever ... at Richmond on the second day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & eighty five'. P. Henry. PATENT VA 8791.0, ASSIGNMENT, 14 June 1784: '... make over the within Plat or Survey of 200 Acres of Land unto John Fry ^Junr & his heirs and to his heirs and assigns for ever ... As Witness my hand and Seal this 14th day of June 1784' - George Spears, seal; test. Jacob Copelin, Geo. Heading. ⭐ 'Junr' is INTERLINED WITH A CARET. GRANT, Book 5 p. 541: 'granted by the said Commonwealth unto John Fry Junr assee of George Spears'. The engrossed boundary calls, p. 542, name BOTH 'John Frys lower Survey of one hundred & fifty acres' and 'John Frys upper survey of one hundred & fifty acres'. LINCOLN COUNTY ENTRIES: John Fry 150 a. and 100 a., both 13 May 1780, Carpenter's Creek (357, 358); John Fry 150 a. 13 Sep 1780, marked WITHDRAWN (794); George Spears two 200 a. entries 7 Aug 1781 both on warrant 242, each reciting 'Adjoined John Fry's survey of 150 acres' (1338, 1339); LEAH FRY 150 a., 8 Nov 1783, book 2 p. 31, Treasury warrant 11124, assignee chain Miller / McGill / Clough Overton, 'Adjoined John Fry's survey of 100 acres on the westward side of the same to begin at his southwest corner' (3227). ⛔ WHAT NONE OF IT DOES: no document here states a relationship between any two people. Nobody is called anyone's son, daughter, father or grandfather. This is shape-B material and the argument built on it is at ancestry/proof-summary-1004-frye-father-2026-09-18.md.

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 26 Jul 2026

PROOF CLASS: FATHER = ARGUMENT (Owen, 18 Sep 2026). Shape B: warrant 242 was laid off around John Fry's own surveys and assigned 14 Jun 1784 to Leah Fry and John Fry Jr; she was 7 at the grant, so the recited purchase is impossible. Audited 26 Jul 2026 - Junction #8. Re-parented to John Frye x Catherine Spears; she is Adam Carpenter's stepdaughter, not his daughter. Duplicate record [1074] merged away. See ancestry/zimmerman-carpenter-junction.md. [2 AUG 2026 - THE LINK TO HER FATHER IS NOW RECORD-EVIDENCED, AND IT WAS GRADED B- UNTIL TODAY] Four independent record classes, none of them a DAR compilation: (1) LEAH FRY ENTERS 150 ACRES IN HER OWN NAME, 8 NOV 1783, ADJOINING HER FATHER'S SURVEY, on Clough Overton's warrant #11124 - Overton being a captain killed at Blue Licks the same day as John Fry; (2) her grandfather GEORGE SPEAR's warrant #242 authorised VA Patent 8790.0 in the name 'FRY, LEAH' and VA 8791.0 'FRY, JOHN, JR.' - the grandfather's warrant patenting to the orphans; (3) a 1796 tax record showing land held for 'the heirs of John Frye'; (4) her mother CATHERINE's 1846 will naming her as Leah Frye who married Jacob Carpenter. All from the Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office databases, which are free and unwalled. ⛔ NO SINGLE RECORD CALLS HER JOHN FRY'S DAUGHTER IN SO MANY WORDS, AND THAT IS STILL TRUE - but the link is no longer ungraded: Owen graded the father half ARGUMENT on 18 Sep 2026 on the correlation set out at the head of this note and in full at ancestry/proof-summary-1004-frye-father-2026-09-18.md, and ProofFather is now 1. The flag records a correlation, NOT a filiation statement. But the grade rises from B- to STRONG, and it no longer rests on DAR's application-derived database. See ancestry/db-write-queue.md. PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = DIRECT (Owen, 18 Sep 2026). Catharine Carpenter's Casey Co., Ky. will, dated 27 May 1846, proved 10 Apr 1848, Item 12: "my Daughter Leah Carpenter's Children formerly Leah Frye and who married Jacob Carpenter". [18 SEP 2026 - THE MOTHER HALF IS CLOSED, AND THE FATHER HALF'S EVIDENCE LIST ABOVE IS QUALIFIED] The mother half is settled by the class line above: the testatrix states the relationship herself, and Leah is identified inside the clause by her maiden name and her husband. The will was read end to end on the manuscript image on 8 Sep 2026 (register K543) and is transcribed in full in citation 7141, now linked to this note. The identity of the testatrix with [734] Catherine Spears is not assumed here: Owen graded [216] Adam Carpenter's parentage DIRECT on 8 Sep 2026 on this same instrument with [734] as the mother (ChildTable RecID 171, note E9015), so it rests on a ruling already in this database. THE FATHER HALF IS NOT GRADED AND ProofFather STAYS 0. Of the four record classes listed above, only (4), the 1846 will, has a row in ancestry/documents-read-index.md. CLASS (2) IS NOW VERIFIED ON THE ORIGINAL (register K715, 18 Sep 2026): Virginia Land-Office Treasury Warrant No 242, read on the manuscript at the Kentucky Secretary of State's Land Office - 'for George Spear his Heirs or Assigns, the Quantity of Two thousand six Hundred Acres', endorsed '2600 Acres 15th Oct. 1779', and carrying in its right margin the patents it produced - 651, 8791, 8790, 5256 - with the word 'Fry' written alongside. The index of all 9,537 Virginia patents confirms VA 8790.0 FRY, LEAH and VA 8791.0 FRY, JOHN, JR. adjacent, with both positive controls firing and the nonsense-string negative control returning 0. CLASS (1) IS NOW VERIFIED TOO (register K716, 18 Sep 2026): Lincoln County Entries, entry 3227.0, 8 Nov 1783, book 2 page 31 - 'Fry, Leah', 150 acres, Treasury warrant 11124, assignee chain Miller / McGill / Clough Overton, on Carpenter's Creek, 'Adjoined John Fry's survey of 100 acres on the westward side of the same to begin at his southwest corner'. The entrant, the date, the acreage and Overton's warrant 11124 all match what this note claimed. ⚠ Read on the Land Office's structured index, not on the manuscript - the entry images are .tif and the browser cannot decode them. ONLY CLASS (3) REMAINS, and its route is not merely unrun but WRONG, because the Land Office does not hold tax lists at all. WARRANT #246 IS NOW OPENED ON THE ORIGINAL (register K717): patent VA 0688.0, Grant Book 2 page 26 - 'in consideration of part of a Land office Treasury Warrant Number 246 and Issued the 15th day of October 1779 There is Granted by the said Commonwealth unto John Fry a certain Tract or parcel of Land containing one hundred Acres by Survey bearing date the twenty first day of June one thousand seven hundred and eighty one lying and being in the County of Lincoln on Carpenters creek'. He took his warrant THE SAME DAY George Spear took #242. ⛔ But that grant issued 5 Dec 1783, fifteen months after his death, and it NAMES NO HEIRS - it runs 'unto John Fry' plain, so the one document here that could have stated filiation does not. That test is SPENT; do not go back to it. ⚠ E9046's '400 acres, GBP 160' for warrant #246 is still unverified - only the 100-acre patent of the three was read; section G of that register (G1-G18, the same day's Carpenter/Fry/Spears read) contains no Kentucky Land Office record at all, both controls firing (register K714). [734]'s own note E9052 already says of them: 'must be re-verified before any of it is written as fact'. THAT UPGRADE IS DONE: warrant #246 and classes (1) and (2) were re-verified on the free unwalled Land Office site on 18 Sep 2026 and each carries its own register row (K715 K716 K717 K718 K719), and the father half was graded on the correlation that resulted. ⭐ THE CHEAPEST REMAINING UPGRADE, and it has an unusually high prior: Leah entered 150 acres IN HER OWN NAME at the age of four, which means a GUARDIAN was acting for her - so look for a guardianship of the Fry orphans in the Lincoln County order books 1782-1790. A guardianship names the father and would take this half to DIRECT. Also open: a dower assignment to Catharine out of John Fry's 100 acres, and any later Fry-Carpenter deed reciting the descent of patent 8790. ALSO CORRECTED ABOVE: the sentence 'All from the Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office databases' is wrong about class (4), which is a county will book, not a land-office record. [18 SEP 2026 (afternoon) - THE FATHER HALF IS GRADED ARGUMENT ON FOUR ORIGINALS READ THE SAME DAY] The case, in short, and it is a correlation not a statement: Catharine Carpenter's 1846 Casey Co. will (K543, cit 7141, read on the manuscript) gives her exactly two children surnamed Frye - a son John and a daughter Leah - by a husband who was not Adam Carpenter, the other nine legatees being tagged 'the Children of my Last Husband Adam Carpenter' four times over. Virginia treasury warrant 242 produced exactly two Fry patents, VA 8790.0 to a LEAH FRY and VA 8791.0 to a JOHN FRY JUNR, and in the whole 9,537-patent series there are five Frys and no others (K719; both positive controls fired and the nonsense-string negative control returned 0). Both tracts were surveyed 16 Apr 1784 'for George Speare' and bounded on John Fry's own UPPER and LOWER surveys of 150 acres each, running 'with Frys line' and 'passing his corner' - the field notes and the engrossed grants agree, in two different hands. George Spears assigned both on 14 June 1784, and on the John Fry deed the scrivener went back and INTERLINED 'Junr' above the name with a caret. ⛔ THE OBJECTION, WHICH THE DOCUMENTS RAISE THEMSELVES: the grant calls her 'Leah Fry assee of George Spears' and the assignment recites 'For a valuable Consideration to me well and truly in hand paid', which on its face is a PURCHASE - a treasury warrant was a freely assignable financial instrument. ⭐ IT IS FORECLOSED BY A DATE: the grant is 2 December 1785 and Leah was born 20 Nov 1778, so she was five and a half at the assignment and SEVEN YEARS AND TWELVE DAYS OLD at the grant. 'Valuable consideration' is the standard printed formula; nobody sells 200 acres to a child at arm's length, so the purchase reading dies on the age of the grantee and a family provision is what survives. ⚠ THE TWO JOINTS THAT BEAR THE LOAD, recorded because the grade rests on them: (i) the age argument depends on Leah's birth date, and that is ONE INFORMANT - this tree says 20 Nov 1778, the DAR lineage form (cit 7025) says 11 Nov 1778, nine days apart, no original; if she was an adult in 1784 the purchase reading revives. (ii) 'George Spears was Catharine's father' is INFORMANT-class (E9052, a KHS archivist on the Carpenter Family Papers, a note that says of itself that it must be re-verified before any of it is written as fact) - the argument survives without it at reduced strength, because an unrelated George Spears would still have conveyed two tracts to two small children bearing the exact names of Catharine's two Frye children, laid off around their father's land. ⛔ WHAT WOULD OVERTURN THIS: a record establishing either a second Leah Fry or a second John Fry seated on Carpenter's Creek in Lincoln County between 1779 and 1790, or an original giving her a birth year early enough to make her an adult purchaser in 1784. Full summary: ancestry/proof-summary-1004-frye-father-2026-09-18.md.

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