Phase Eleven · Descendant Pathways
Two Branches Out of One Household
From John Smith and Laura Tolliver Smith, the archive follows two lines of descent — one toward Emmett Louis Till, one toward the archive's founder. Each generation is shown with the evidence that currently holds it, and with the evidence it still lacks.
How to read this page
Three things before the branches
01
One household, two directions
John Smith and Laura Tolliver Smith kept a household in Mississippi. Out of it come two lines this archive is following: one that arrives at Emmett Louis Till, and one that arrives at the person building this archive. Neither line is offered as a claim about the other.
02
Every generation is its own question
A descent path is not a single fact. It is a stack of separate parent-child claims, each with its own sources, its own status and its own unfinished work. Some of the links below are family knowledge only. They are labelled that way, and they are not quietly upgraded by the strength of the links around them.
03
The label is calculated
No cousin label is written into this page. The relationship is computed from the published parent-child edges at the moment you load it. Correct one link and the sentence changes; remove one link and the sentence disappears.
Where our branches meet
The convergence
Computed, not asserted
Emmett Louis Till and Amberly R. Carter-Mills are third cousins
This label was calculated from 8 published parent-child links, upward from each person to the nearest shared ancestor recorded in the archive. It is not stored anywhere. If a single link below is corrected, this sentence changes with it.
A relationship is only as strong as its weakest generation. Two of the links on these pathways rest on family knowledge, and several rest on statements this archive has not yet examined in the original. The connection is therefore stated as under verification, and the work needed to change that is listed on each link.
Branch A · 4 generations
Down to Emmett Louis Till
BT-PER-00004
BT-PER-00266 · b. 21 April 1881 (death record) or about 1872 (1880 census) - conflicting
Link to John SmithDocumentedThe family history names George Smith among the children of John and Laura Smith. No census line, birth record or death record naming both parents has yet been transcribed into this archive.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00274BT-PER-00267 · b. about 1902 (memorial)
Link to George SmithUnder InvestigationFamily 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.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00279Mamie Elizabeth Carthan Till-Mobley
BT-PER-00268 · b. 23 November 1921
Link to Alma Smith Carthan SpearmanUnder InvestigationThis 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.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00283BT-PER-00269 · b. 25 July 1941
Link to Mamie Elizabeth Carthan Till-MobleyUnder InvestigationThis relationship is stated in widely published accounts. It is entered here as a derivative statement pending an original record examined by this archive.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00287
Branch B · 4 generations
Down to Amberly R. Carter-Mills
BT-PER-00004
BT-PER-00270
Link to John SmithFamily TraditionThe family history names Amanda Smith among the children of John and Laura Smith. No census line, birth record or death record naming both parents has yet been transcribed into this archive.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00291BT-PER-00271
Link to Amanda SmithUnder InvestigationFamily knowledge places Kermit Gordon as a child of Amanda Smith. No contemporary record has been entered, so the generation is carried as under verification.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00296BT-PER-00272 · b. April 25, 1956
Living · consent recordedLink to Kermit GordonUnder InvestigationThis link is currently carried by living family knowledge. No birth certificate, census entry or death record has been entered into the archive that names Kermit Gordon as her parent. Family knowledge is recorded here as what it is: direct, first-hand, and not yet independently documented.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00300BT-PER-00273 · b. May 23, 1985
Living · consent recordedLink to Magnolia "Maggie" CarterFamily TraditionBoth people are living and both have recorded consent to be named. The link is known directly within the family and is additionally supported by an Illinois birth certificate that this archive describes but does not publish. The founder receives no evidentiary shortcut: the record has not been obtained, and the link is not presented as documented until it has been.
Show me the proof · BT-CLM-00304
Branch B · the last generation
The founder's name, adoption and parentage
Three things a birth certificate can mean
A document can name a father because a court found him, because a family raised him into the role, or because a marriage had not yet been dissolved on the day of the birth. All three appear in the founder's own record, and each is recorded separately below rather than resolved into a single ancestor.
Family
Michael Carter
Family TraditionAdoptive father. The founder states plainly that she considers herself a member of Michael Carter's family. This is the relationship the archive carries as hers.
Legal record only
David Harris
Under InvestigationNamed on the original Illinois birth certificate because Magnolia was still legally married to him when the birth occurred. A name placed on a document by statute is not a statement of parentage, and the archive records no descent from it.
Biological only
Tyrone White
Family TraditionBiological father, on the founder's own statement. They have met once. No relationship is claimed. The link is carried so that the biological line is not falsified, and nothing further about him is held or published.
The surname sequence
Harris
23 May 1985 — 1986
The surname recorded at birth. It is the surname of Magnolia "Maggie" Carter's first husband, David Harris, and it reaches the certificate through Illinois marital presumption rather than through descent.
Carter
From the adoption, age one
Michael Carter married Magnolia in 1986 and adopted Amberly at the age of one. The surname changed to Carter and the birth certificate was amended to name him as father.
Carter-Mills
Adult life
The name under which the founder researches, writes and signs this archive.
Living people
What this archive will not publish
A note from the founder
Amberly R. Carter-Mills appears in this archive as a descendant and as its author, and both roles are declared. Her own link to the household is carried at the same standard as every other link on this page: family knowledge, marked as family knowledge, with the documentary work still outstanding. The founder's presence in the line is not a credential, and it does not raise the status of anything above it.
Attribution
Cite this pathway
Cite this page
Carter-Mills, Amberly R. "Two Descendant Branches Out of the John and Laura Smith Household." BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive. Version not yet assigned. Object BT-PATH-001. Accessed 2026-09-24. /descendants.
Attribution: Amberly R. Carter-Mills, Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist.