BEFORE TILL archival sealBefore TillThe Living Evidence Archive

Case · BT-PER-00267 · A living evidence case study

Alma Smith Carthan Spearman

Daughter of George Smith in the family account, mother of Mamie Elizabeth Carthan Till-Mobley, and the family historian whose written family history is one of the archive's cited sources. Carthan and Spearman are both her married surnames: the records once kept separately under those names describe one woman. The archive has not yet examined a contemporary record establishing her parentage, so that generation link is carried as under investigation.

Claims examined
4
Reached documented
0
Sources cited
4
Observations extracted
2
Family accounts preserved
6

Case at a glance

Alma Smith Carthan Spearman

about 1902 (memorial) — about 1981 (memorial)

Documented in this archive

  • No claim in this case has yet reached documented status.

Research & interpretation

Amberly R. Carter-Mills

Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist

01

What the family remembers

Accounts held and repeated in the family. They are preserved as accounts — they are not treated as proof.

  • The eighty-acre place

    Family Tradition
    “John and Laura acquired approximately eighty acres, with a house, barns, livestock, a blacksmith shop, wells, orchards, pastures, streams, gardens, trees, and poultry.”

    Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

    BT-TRD-00097

  • Laura attended "Vicksburg College"

    Family Tradition
    “Laura Tolliver, while yet a student of Vicksburg College, was given in marriage to John Smith, a country farmer.”

    Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

    BT-TRD-00098

  • Bishop C. H. Mason in the Smith home

    Family Tradition
    “Around 1897 John and Laura Smith welcomed Bishop C. H. Mason into their home, extended an ongoing invitation for him to stay when in the area, their son Joe cared for his horse and buggy, and their oldest grandson Mason Harrison Smith was named for him.”

    Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

    BT-TRD-00099

  • The five-year separation

    Family Tradition
    “Hilliard was sold to another enslaver in Arkansas and separated from Bettie. Bettie's grief was so constant that her enslavers purchased Hilliard back, ending a separation the family remembers as lasting about five years.”

    Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

    BT-TRD-00195

  • Choctaw ancestry in Bettie's line

    Family Tradition
    “Family memory identifies Choctaw ancestry in the ancestry of Bettie Alexander Taliaferro, born about 1837.”

    Earliest known teller: Not recorded

    BT-TRD-00604

  • Shawnee ancestry in Hilliard's line

    Family Tradition
    “Family memory identifies Shawnee ancestry in the ancestry of Hilliard Taliaferro, born about 1823 in Virginia.”

    Earliest known teller: Not recorded

    BT-TRD-00605

02

What the records actually say

Every observation extracted from a source, grouped by the record it came from. Verbatim wording is shown where the record supplies it.

Family knowledge supplied by Amberly R. Carter-Mills

BT-SRC-00264

Amberly R. Carter-Mills · BEFORE TILL research files · Authored Narrative

Evidentiary weight 3 of 4. Primary oral history — for the intervieweeOriginal image: Transcript verification pendingA first-person account, primary evidence for the speaker's own life. It is not evidence about another person unless that person is named in it.

  • Family knowledge places Alma Carthan as a daughter of George Smith. The archive holds no contemporary record for this link, so the generation is carried as under verification.

    BT-EVD-00281

Find a Grave memorial 92711754 for George Smith (21 Apr 1881 - 3 Mar 1936), Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois

BT-SRC-00041

Contributor AR Jackson (member 47847137), memorial maintainer · Find a Grave (database and images), online · Index

Evidentiary weight 1 of 4. Research lead — derivative sourceOriginal image: Derivative source onlyCompiled or user-contributed content. Used to direct research, not as proof.

  • The memorial lists Alma Smith Spearman (1902-1981) among George Smith's children. This is a second mention of the Alma-to-George link, but it is a contributor statement rather than a record, so the link stays under investigation.

    “Alma Smith Spearman 1902-1981”

    BT-EVD-00555

03

Where they conflict

Conflicts are preserved, not resolved by preference. Supporting, complicating and contextual readings are shown side by side.

No conflicting evidence has been recorded in this case.

04

Amberly's current conclusion

Conclusions are versioned. Nothing is overwritten — a new reading supersedes the last and the earlier version stays on the record.

  • Was Alma Smith Carthan a daughter of George Smith?

    Under Investigation

    Version 1 · Current · Low confidence · published August 12, 2026 · BT-CON-00280

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    Family knowledge places Alma Carthan as a daughter of George Smith. The archive holds no contemporary record for this link, so the generation is carried as under verification.

    What is known: Family knowledge places Alma Carthan as a daughter of George Smith. The archive holds no contemporary record for this link, so the generation is carried as under verification.

    What is not known: No contemporary record establishing this relationship has been examined by this archive and entered as an original.

  • Was Mamie Till-Mobley a daughter of Alma Carthan?

    Under Investigation

    Version 1 · Current · Medium confidence · published August 12, 2026 · BT-CON-00284

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    This relationship is stated in widely published accounts. BEFORE TILL has not yet examined an original record for it, so it is held as under verification rather than documented.

    What is known: This relationship is stated in widely published accounts. BEFORE TILL has not yet examined an original record for it, so it is held as under verification rather than documented.

    What is not known: No contemporary record establishing this relationship has been examined by this archive and entered as an original.

  • Whom did Alma Smith Carthan marry, and when?

    Under Investigation

    Version 1 · Current · Low confidence · published August 12, 2026 · BT-CON-00354

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    No spouse is entered for Alma Smith Carthan.

    What is known: Alma is known by the surname Carthan in published accounts.

    What is not known: Her husband's full name, and the date and place of the marriage.

  • Are Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman the same person?

    Under Investigation

    Version 1 · Current · Medium confidence · published August 12, 2026 · BT-CON-00355

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman are held as two separate people.

    What is known: The archive holds two separate person records, and cites Alma Smith Spearman only as the author of a family history.

    What is not known: The full vital details of each woman, which are what would make the separation demonstrable rather than procedural.

05

What could change this

The records not yet located, and the questions still open. If you hold one of them, the archive wants to hear from you.

  • Was Alma Smith Carthan a daughter of George Smith?

    Was Alma Smith Carthan a daughter of George Smith?

    Next: Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.

  • Was Mamie Till-Mobley a daughter of Alma Carthan?

    Was Mamie Till-Mobley a daughter of Alma Carthan?

    Next: Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.

  • Whom did Alma Smith Carthan marry, and when?

    What marriage record or census household documents Alma Smith's marriage and her husband's full name?

    Next: Search Cook County and Mississippi marriage records; check the 1930 and 1940 census households.

  • Are Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman the same person?

    What records fix the birth, marriage and death of each Alma separately, so that neither can be collapsed into the other?

    Next: Establish birth, marriage and death records for each Alma independently.

Do you hold a record, a photograph, or a family account bearing on this question? Submit it for review. A submission becomes a research lead; it does not change a published conclusion on its own.

Attach files (optional)

Scans, photographs, or a recorded account. Up to 5 files, 25.0 MB each — images, PDF, or audio. Attachments are stored privately and are never published without review.

Please do not send Social Security numbers, account or policy numbers, unredacted identification for living people, financial information, private medical records, or records about a living person who has not agreed to it. Everything you send is stored privately and reviewed before anything is published — nothing you submit appears on the site automatically. See the records and documents policy.

06

Evidence trails

Follow any claim from the claim itself, through each observation and its source, to the conclusion it produced.

Step 1 · Claim

Was Alma Smith Carthan a daughter of George Smith?

Under Investigation· 1 source

BT-CLM-00279

Parent-child relationship between george-smith and alma-smith-carthan, held as a single generation link rather than as part of a lineage assertion.

Step 2 · Evidence & Source

  1. Partially Supports · Weak weight

    Family knowledge places Alma Carthan as a daughter of George Smith. The archive holds no contemporary record for this link, so the generation is carried as under verification.

    Family knowledge supplied by Amberly R. Carter-Mills · BEFORE TILL research files · Authored Narrative

    BT-EVD-00281 ← BT-SRC-00264

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    Family knowledge and documentary verification are recorded separately. Both are shown; neither is presented as the other.

Step 3 · Conclusion

Under InvestigationVersion 1 · Current · Low confidence

Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

Family knowledge places Alma Carthan as a daughter of George Smith. The archive holds no contemporary record for this link, so the generation is carried as under verification.

What is not known: No contemporary record establishing this relationship has been examined by this archive and entered as an original.

What could change this: Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.

Step 1 · Claim

Was Mamie Till-Mobley a daughter of Alma Carthan?

Under Investigation· 1 source

BT-CLM-00283

Parent-child relationship between alma-smith-carthan and mamie-till-mobley, held as a single generation link rather than as part of a lineage assertion.

Step 2 · Evidence & Source

  1. Partially Supports · Weak weight

    This relationship is stated in widely published accounts. BEFORE TILL has not yet examined an original record for it, so it is held as under verification rather than documented.

    Widely published account of the Carthan–Till family · Not yet examined by this archive · Abstract

    BT-EVD-00285 ← BT-SRC-00265

    Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

    Family knowledge and documentary verification are recorded separately. Both are shown; neither is presented as the other.

Step 3 · Conclusion

Under InvestigationVersion 1 · Current · Medium confidence

Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

This relationship is stated in widely published accounts. BEFORE TILL has not yet examined an original record for it, so it is held as under verification rather than documented.

What is not known: No contemporary record establishing this relationship has been examined by this archive and entered as an original.

What could change this: Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.

Step 1 · Claim

Whom did Alma Smith Carthan marry, and when?

Under Investigation· 0 sources

BT-CLM-00346

Alma Smith married a man surnamed Carthan, commonly named as John Carthan.

Step 2 · Evidence & Source

No evidence has been weighed into this claim yet.

Step 3 · Conclusion

Under InvestigationVersion 1 · Current · Low confidence

Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

No spouse is entered for Alma Smith Carthan.

What is not known: Her husband's full name, and the date and place of the marriage.

What could change this: Search Cook County and Mississippi marriage records; check the 1930 and 1940 census households.

Step 1 · Claim

Are Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman the same person?

Under Investigation· 0 sources

BT-CLM-00347

Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman are two different women.

Step 2 · Evidence & Source

No evidence has been weighed into this claim yet.

Step 3 · Conclusion

Under InvestigationVersion 1 · Current · Medium confidence

Researcher interpretation · Amberly R. Carter-Mills

Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman are held as two separate people.

What is not known: The full vital details of each woman, which are what would make the separation demonstrable rather than procedural.

What could change this: Establish birth, marriage and death records for each Alma independently.

07

Historical context and how researchers read it

The world these records were made in, and the reasoning used to interpret them. Kept apart from the evidence on purpose: nothing in this section proves anything about this family, and nothing here can change the status of a claim.

09

Provenance, access and use

Every source this case rests on, with its provenance metadata and reuse terms. Compiled web pages, derivative transcriptions, oral histories and original records are labelled separately and never flattened together.

Source creator
Varies by record — see each source
Who made the original record.
Researcher of record
Amberly R. Carter-Mills — Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist
Located, transcribed, weighed and interpreted the evidence.
Publishing archive
BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive
Holds the object, its identifiers and its revision history.

Family knowledge supplied by Amberly R. Carter-Mills

BT-SRC-00264
Evidentiary weight 3 of 4. Primary oral history — for the intervieweeOriginal image: Transcript verification pendingA first-person account, primary evidence for the speaker's own life. It is not evidence about another person unless that person is named in it.
Creator
Amberly R. Carter-Mills
Date created
2026
Repository
BEFORE TILL research files
Collection
Not recorded
Record form
Authored Narrative
Source type
Oral History
Accessed
Not recorded

Access and use

Family knowledge, recorded as such. It is evidence of what the family carries, and it is not a substitute for a contemporary record.

BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.

Find a Grave memorial 92711754 for George Smith (21 Apr 1881 - 3 Mar 1936), Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois

BT-SRC-00041
Evidentiary weight 1 of 4. Research lead — derivative sourceOriginal image: Derivative source onlyCompiled or user-contributed content. Used to direct research, not as proof.
Creator
Contributor AR Jackson (member 47847137), memorial maintainer
Date created
Undated online memorial; accessed 14 October 2021
Repository
Find a Grave (database and images), online
Collection
Find a Grave Memorial ID 92711754
Record form
Index
Source type
Cemetery
Accessed
2021-10-14

Access and use

RESEARCH LEAD / DERIVATIVE SOURCE. User-contributed memorial content. Not treated as proof of parentage or birthplace unless supported by a monument photograph, death certificate, obituary, or burial record.

BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.

Widely published account of the Carthan–Till family

BT-SRC-00265
Evidentiary weight 2 of 4. Derivative sourceOriginal image: Citation entered — image review pendingA transcription, abstract or index standing in for a record BEFORE TILL has not yet examined directly.
Creator
Various published accounts
Date created
Twentieth century onward
Repository
Not yet examined by this archive
Collection
Not recorded
Record form
Abstract
Source type
Other
Accessed
Not recorded

Access and use

Derivative. Named here so the pathway is honest about what has, and has not, been examined in the original.

BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.

Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

BT-SRC-00040
Evidentiary weight 2 of 4. Authored family historyOriginal image: Publication details pendingA descendant-authored account. Evidence that the account exists; not automatically contemporary proof of the events it describes.
Creator
Alma Smith Spearman
Date created
Not recorded
Repository
Not recorded
Collection
Not recorded
Record form
Authored Narrative
Source type
Book
Accessed
Not recorded

Access and use

COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION NEEDED. Published family history / descendant-authored narrative. Title, publisher, and publication date have not yet been supplied. A valuable family source; it is not automatically contemporary documentary proof for events predating the author's lifetime.

BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.

11

Research history of this case

Every logged research action against this case, in the order it happened. Conclusions supersede; they are never quietly overwritten.

No research actions have been logged against this case yet.

The archive-wide audit trail, including corrections, is in the research ledger.

For press, researchers & institutions

How to cite and verify Case

Subject
Alma Smith Carthan Spearman
Persistent identifier
BT-PER-00267
Researcher of record
Amberly R. Carter-Mills, Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist
Publishing archive
BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive
Sources underpinning the case
4
Discrete evidence observations
2
Stable URL
/case/alma-smith-carthan

Safe to report as documented

  • Nothing in this case has reached documented status.

Must be attributed as unresolved

  • · Was Alma Smith Carthan a daughter of George Smith?
  • · Was Mamie Till-Mobley a daughter of Alma Carthan?
  • · Whom did Alma Smith Carthan marry, and when?
  • · Are Alma Smith Carthan and Alma Smith Spearman the same person?

BEFORE TILL does not describe any finding as “proven” or as “fact.” Statuses are Documented, Corroborated, Family Tradition, Under Investigation and Corrected, and each is defined on the methodology page. Please carry the status with the finding.

Research brief (printable)Evidence standardRequest verification or interview

Why this case matters

One life, reconstructed to a standard

For most people enslaved in the United States, the surviving record is a line in someone else’s ledger: an age, a sex, no name. Alma Smith Carthan Spearman’s case shows that a life can still be reconstructed from those fragments without inventing a single detail — and that the gaps, the conflicts and the family memory can be carried forward honestly alongside what the records prove.

This is slow work. Every observation on this page was located, transcribed, weighed and attributed by hand. Support pays for archive access, image orders, repository travel and the research hours that turn a name into a documented life.

What further support unlocks next

  • Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.
  • Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.
  • Search Cook County and Mississippi marriage records; check the 1930 and 1940 census households.
  • Establish birth, marriage and death records for each Alma independently.
Support this researchContribute a record or lead