He was named in his father’s will.

He can be accounted for with his father in 1820 and 1830.

1840. Wm Carling lives in District 4 BAL County. He is 20-30 as is his wife (though I think she was 32). A female 50-59 is present, it is not clear who she is.

1850. William Carlon lives in 2nd District BAL County.

1860. William Carland lives in District 10 Monkton, BAL County.

1870. William Carlin lives in District 10 Monkton, BAL County. Living with him is son Josiah 34 and his wife and 2 daughters. A question was supposed to be asked if a parent was foreign born, but I don’t think the Census taker asked that question.

1880. William is a stone mason, living with his son Josiah and Josiah’s family in District 10. He says his parents were both born in Maryland as was he.

Warren Wolff has the line from Maria Elizabeth to William to William (Guilliame) adopted by James.

The background of William Carlin is one more place where I believe that Harold Slade’s genealogy on our family was in error. Harold described this William Carlin, born 1812, as a French boy named William Santee adopted by James Carlin. That simply is not true. Harold misunderstood what probably was family tradition that it was the father of this William Carlin, also named William Carlin, who was the ”French boy”.

The question of whether his father was foreign-born did not seem to have been asked of William in 1870. In 1880, though, he said he, his father and mother had all been born in Maryland.

It is only a guess that her father was Peter, he was in the right place at the right time with a daughter of the right age and of a family where Sarah was an important name. All I know about Sarah is her approximate birth year and that she married in Baltimore County (to a husband from Harford County).

I have examined every marriage record, will, estate record, property deed and even (possibly bogus) Internet family histories or trees for anyone named Potee, including all conceivable alternate spellings, for that period in both Harford and Baltimore Counties -- and found nothing that would even hint at who Sarah’s father was. As I’ve had to do in a few other families, I then resorted to a study of Census tick marks (counts of people in early Census by gender and age bracket) to try to pick a candidate to be her father.

Now in doing this, the first problem is do I know Sarah’s correct birth year? Her tombstone has been transcribed as saying she died in 1878 at age 66 -- thus implying an 1812 birth. But I have seen that tombstone and the “8” in 1878 is a little hard to read and I believe it might say 1873 -- age 66, thus 1807 -- and that is more consistent with her age in Census. In 1840, both she and William Carlin were age 20-29 but then in 1850 she was said to be 42 and he 38, in 1860 she 50 he 48, in 1860 she 62 he 57 and in 1880 he 68 -- his age always consistent with his tombstone which implies a birth in about 1812. And note, she was consistently a few years older than he. So the crux of my tick mark argument is that she was born prior to 1810.

So the tick mark argument for Peter being her father is simply this: Only Peter of Baltimore and William of Harford County have a daughter of the right age in the 1810 Census and then in 1820, only Peter alone has a daughter of the right age. In 1830, no one does.

A supporting argument comes from analysis of Maryland Marriages for either Baltimore or Harford County. I certainly cannot make the claim that every Maryland marriage from the relevant period was documented -- but I will say there were many, many marriages listed. Prior to 1769, there were 14 marriages that I have been able to find documented of persons (male or female) named Potee or Poteet (including bad spellings).

From 1770 to 1802, there was just one (Catherine of Harford County married John Dooley). I admit that is quite curious -- was there a clear gap in the record-keeping then? Or, did the generations just line up so that period was void of Potee/Poteet persons coming of age? Then, about 1800, now considering only males (since I’m trying to identify Sarah’s father), we have James in 1803, Peter (my candidate) in 1806 and Sutton (who moved away soon thereafter) and Jesse in 1811. Sutton and Jesse are too late, and if I have correctly identified James in 1810, he did not have a young daughter.

Yet another supporting argument is that my candidate Peter had a sister named Sarah and she had been named for Sarah (Meadows) Potee, mother of Peter Sr. Sarah was an important name for the Baltimore Potee family.

And finally, we know from his obituary that when Peter died in 1840, he was survived by eleven children. I have worked with Bobbi Potee Gress on trying to name them (from two marriages) and while we can account for many and we know many of their ages, there is certainly room for Sarah to be among them.

There are a few counter arguments though:

Was Sarah of a Baltimore County, Baltimore City or Harford County family? My working theory places her in the Baltimore City family but how did she then, in that case, come to meet William Carlin -- this is an important issue back in those days where men typically married the “girl next door” (in a few mile range of where he was living). William, you would think, would have married a Harford County girl or, if Baltimore County, someone living near the Harford County line. On the other hand, they married in 1833 and Sarah is simply not to be found in any Potee/Poteet household in 1830 so perhaps she was working someplace beyond city limits and nearer where she could have met William.

But I can really turn this argument back around the other way. If she was of any of the Harford County families, marrying a Harford County man, wouldn’t she have married in Harford County?

Did Sarah think she was Sarah Potee or Sarah Poteet? I have observed in my Dad’s family, that spellings changed/evolved when people moved. It seems to me that the name was Puttee originally in Harford County but became Poteet for the families that stayed there. But when Peter moved to Baltimore, the spelling seemed to evolve (or revert?) to Potee for he and his descendants. So a simple rule of thumb would be if the name is Potee, the person is a descendant of Peter Sr. If the name is Poteet, the person is a descendant of one of the Harford County families. Sarah’s name was written (or transcribed) Potect when she married. And on her son Josiah’s death certificate it clearly says Sarah Poteet. (I can perhaps explain that away by observing that the Carlins, by that time, were living closer to Harford County than Baltimore City -- so that was just the spelling that was familiar where they then lived.)

And finally, the burning question for me now has become: Was she Methodist? Peter Potee lived in Baltimore very near the spot where the Methodist Church was founded and where the first congregation was formed. He and his family adopted this new religion. Sarah’s marriage record was sent into Baltimore County by Reverend Morrison. I have been in touch with the archivist at the Lovely Lane Methodist Church Museum (which seems to have the best collection of records of early Baltimore Methodism) and asked if Morrison was a Methodist Minister in 1834. She reported back there was no record of it, nor any record of anyone by that name being a Minister at all in that time period, in any denomination, anywhere in Maryland.

But it turns out she was wrong. The Andrew Cross history of Bethel Presbyterian, which has been mentioned in connection with my research into a couple of other Harford County families, documents that Rev Morrison immediately preceded Cross at Bethel and in fact was the minister there at the time Sarah married. Now an easy explanation of why they married there is that James Carlin, William’s (adopted) grandfather, was a founding member. It was probably still in 1833, the Carlin family church. Which brings us back to the question: what was Sarah doing there and why did she get married in her husband’s church rather than her own?

But there is one more wrinkle in this mystery. In my search for Rev Morrison, before I had found the Andrew Cross pamphlet, I found where someone posted to the Baltimore County GenWeb page a list of marriages in one particular week of February 1834. The first marriage on that list was of James McCurley and Elizabeth Graham -- performed by Minister Morrison. So who were they? I don’t yet know if they were Methodists, but I have found them in the 1850 and 1860 Census in downtown Baltimore -- they definitely were of the City. Moreover I believe James was the son of Felix and he, like Peter and his sons, was listed in those early directories of Baltimorians and their occupations.

So the evidence seems to point to the idea that Morrison married people of Baltimore -- the City. As with everything to do with Sarah, though, nothing is simple. When I first learned of the strong Methodist connection of the Peter Potee family, I thought that fact might explain why that was my Mother’s religion, that perhaps it carried straight down -- Mother to Mother to Mother.

The problem is that Sarah’s great-granddaughter Lida Slade Hoshall married at Bethel Presbyterian Church too -- the very church where James Carlin was an early member -- in Harford County but very near the Baltimore county line. True, that church was near White Hall, where Lida lived. But if Lida was Methodist, why wouldn’t she have found a Methodist Church?

On the other hand, Sarah and William Carlin were buried at the church cemetery of the McKendree Methodist Episcopal Church. So that is certainly evidence that Sarah maybe was Methodist. As with a lot of things having to do with Sarah, it is hard to get a totally factual, consistent picture of some important details of her life. Maybe Sarah was Methodist, Lida too and it was the Potee Methodism which carried down to our Mother. Maybe Sarah married in the Presbyterian Church where the Carlins belonged (or in any event was married by the minister of that church) for any number of reasons and maybe Lida married there because of family tradition. I just don’t know.

2020 Update. Doing yet more research on this puzzle, I learned of a different Sarah Potee who was a little younger than my Sarah but married John Cloarty in 1834. They were married by Rev Joseph Shane who was quite closely connected to Lovely Lane Methodist, married a Kreps (Krebs?), and was buried at Mt Olivet. I think if Peter had a daugher named Sarah, it was much more likely Sarah (Potee) Cloarty.

I have attempted to make a preliminary identification of her parents by analyzing the 1810, 1820 and 1830 Census, looking for a household with a daughter of the right age to be Sarah. This technique can never prove anything, but I have used it successfully in other family lines to identify “suspects”.

So she would have been under 5 in 1810, 10-16 in 1820 and 20-30 in 1830. It turns out that there is no candidate household in 1830 -- so she was most likely not living at home. So the search really concentrated on 1810 and 1820.

I looked first in both Harford and Baltimore County for households with the Pote* name -- thus finding many alternate spellings.

This became an iterative process so that as I found candidates in one Census, and then not be able to account for them in subsequent Censuses, I would expand the spelling possibilities to try to track the people of interest across multiple Censuses. This included scanning lists of people just using a first name for any misspelling -- this name was often misspelled. The spellings that pertain include: Potee, Poteet, Patee, Pater, Peter, Pta, Patter, Pate, and Botee. This is the way the names have been indexed although upon inspection of these records, you can see that it really was Potee or most likely Potee that had been written.

The candidate I found initially was Peter Potee who based my deed research explained elsewhere, I’ll call Peter Jr.

In addition, there is also a Peter Potee age 45+ in 1820 of Bal Ward 12 with 2 females 0-9 and 2 10-16. This, I believe, is Peter Sr. I am unable to find Peter Sr. in 1810 or 1830.

In addition, there is also Francis Patter of Bal Wards 2-6 who in 1810 is 26-45 and has females 0-9, 16-26 and 26-45. I am unable to find Francis in 1820. And then in 1830, France Pater is 50-60 and has females 5-10, 10-15, 15-20 and 50-60. Like Peter Jr., if Sarah was his daughter, she lives somewhere else in 1830.

There was also a James Potee who, if I have found him in 1820, had a daughter 10-15, but I’m pretty sure I found him in 1810 and he did not have any daughters then.

Finally, the other name of someone in this family that comes from other research is Isaac Potee. After much effort, I believe I found Isaac in 1830 -- indexed by Ancestry as Isaac Pta -- but upon inspection I can convince myself it is Potee. He is age 30-40 in 1830 and has females under 5, 5-10, 15-20, 30-40, and 70-80. From other information, I think Isaac was too young to be the father of Sarah.

In Harford County, there were a number of people with this name, but in 1810 only William Poteet has a daughter the right age and then in 1820 he doesn’t.

My conclusion is that the best candidates are Peter, Sr., Peter Jr. and Francis.

The mystery Poteet family is that of Sarah Poteet, wife of William Carlin. She is very important to me as she was our mother’s, mother’s, mother’s, mother’s ......mother. On our family tree, she is on the bottom most line. I have done the DNA test to learn something of our father’s, father’s, father’s.... heritage and I could test, but haven’t yet, to learn of our mother’s, mother’s, mother’s.... heritage.

But in terms of knowing much about that ancient woman’s descendants down to our actual tree, I need to learn more about Sarah Poteet’s mother, Betsy Ann Shanks I believe, and her mother and so on back to at least the European connection -- before performing such a test would make sense.