carlene, thanks for your reply. i have pretty much ruled out shadrach carson as one of "mine". my brick wall is my ggrandfather robert a. carson in bradley co, tn from 1860 till his death in 1906. have been trying to find his family for over 30 yrs. have been looking at all possibilities in tn before 1860. rbt was born in 1833 in tn is all i know. i think he's connected to carsons from blount co who went on to bradley co but can't make any connection. there are several carson lines that went to bradley. one cousin that is deceased now said she thought he came from polk co but not sure. that's the reason i was looking at carsons in polk.