I really appreciate your help. Susan Swain Starbuck was my grandfather's first wife. She was born on July 30, 1820, in Guilford, NC, and passed away on Jan. 15, 1858, at Whitaker's Bluff in Perry County (possibly Wayne County), TN. Her parents were Seth and Ruth Swain Starbuck of Nantucket, MA and I have all of this documented on Ancestry.com along with the information I have for Thomas Lindley Carter and his second wife, Harriett Ann Hettie Humphries, who would actually be my great-great-grandmother. She was the mother of my great-grandfather, Preston Everett Carter.
It's like I've run into a dead-end on finding any records of Thomas Lindley Carter in NC, but I did find a few records in TN. I've been unable to find a marriage record for T L and Harriett, no death records for TL or Susan but it's suspected they are buried in the Carter-Lindley Cemetery above the log house where they lived. Harriet's DC confirms she died in TX.
I have searched everywhere I think there could be a link for Thomas Lindley Carter. There is a Thomas Lindley who died Sept. 14, 1781, in the Battle of Lindley's Mill, Spring Creek, Alamance, NC that I thought might help. Lindley is not a name the Carter family used and I thought maybe a Carter son had married a daughter or granddaughter of Thomas William Lindley, but I've not found that to be true.
I just want to know who the father of Thomas Lindley Carter is but I may never be able to prove it for lack of documentation.
If you have an Ancestry account I would be happy to share my Carter family with you.
Please continue to add the profiles to Thomas Lindley Carter and Harriett Humphries Carter. Maybe you will find something that I haven't found on Ancestry or Family Tree. I'm not sure how to upload my Ancestry info via Gedcom.
Thank you for your interest in helping me.