All three of these men named Adam Carman are of the same line of John-2 and Hannah _____.  Hannah is sometimes said to be from the Seaman line, and may be. The trouble is that his son Caleb is also supposes to have married Hannah Seaman, daughter of Captain John Seaman. Caleb seems to have the better claim, but there are other arguments, which tend towards John-2's wife being a Seaman also.  In either case she was most likely a Hannah because of the frequency of the name appearing in later generations, but she could have been another Seaman daughter - take your choice. "Seaman Genealogy also contends it is from the line of the 6th daughter of Captain John Seaman 'that Great Adam Carman was born'. " No one knows for a fact who "Great Adam" was or why he is called "great" (although it appears he is Adam⁶ and refers to the old age he reach).  If it is John-2's wife then it could be any of the three and probably Adam/Mary Burtis because he was the oldest of the namesakes as in 'greater in age'.  If it refers to Caleb's wife then 'Great Adam' would be Adam/Philda for reasons unknown.  In any case there has been more misinformation put forth about these three men (and a lot of times they are not even given credit as being three different men) then any other of the other family lines. 

Adam who married Mary Burtis (John-2, John-3, John-4)

1. Adam/Mary Burtis' mother was Elizabeth Ireland whose brother is Adam Ireland and chances are that is where he got his name from, his maternal uncle.

2. Adam and Mary have two sons, one unnamed infant baptized in 1751 at 'point of death'. The other named Adam baptized in 1753 with his sisters. So why couldn't he be the father of either of the other two Adams? - Adam/Phila is born much earlier (1723) and has other known brothers that are missing from this family, and Adam/Amelia's father was named John, not Adam.   Most likely this son Adam  died as a child because there is no known record of him after his baptism.  Adam/Mary Burtis dies in 1781 and mentions no sons in his will of 1780 but divides his property among his daughters.

Adam who married Philadelphia Titus (John-2, Caleb-3, Benjamin-4)

1. Adam/Phila Titus probably got his name from his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather, Adam Motts both of them, as the wife of Benjamin-4 is Ann Mott.  This was a common practice then as it is today.

2. Phila is an abbreviation for Philadelphia. As her family is Quaker and the Church headquarters of the Quakers is in Philadelphia, it's not hard to see where she got her name from.  But they are the same and not separate people.

3. I have seen Adam/Amelia linked as son to Adam/Phila many times, but again none of Adam/Amelia's grandchildren make this statement - they all say his father was John.  The children of Adam/Phila are also fairly well documented in Quaker and bible records and there is no son Adam mentioned.  The name waits in this family for the next generation and this grandchild of theirs is born way to late to be Adam/Amelia, besides living in upstate New York and having a family of his own.

4. Adam/Phila is often mistaken as the son of Joseph Carman / Susannah Tredwell, possibly because of the fact that Joseph's father was a deaf mute as was Benjamin-4 son of Benjamin-3.  The father of Adam/Phila, - Benjamin-4 however is the son of Caleb-3 and not the same Benjamin-4, so it is confused twice (someone, somewhere mixed the two Benjamin's to come up with the incorrect fact that Adam's father was a deaf mute and knew Joseph's father, "Dumb Tom" was a deaf mute and concluded Joseph had to be the father).  Additionally we have the name relationship between Adam/Phila and Adam Mott which does not occur otherwise and the Mott family is also a strong Quaker family.  Adam Mott Jr and Caleb-4 (Benjamin-4's brother) witnessed Caleb-3's will.  Benjamin-4 is also mentioned in the will.

5.  Adam's  brother Samuel is fairly well documented.  Samuel mentions his Brother Adam in both his will and in a land deed which is in the collection of the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University.   The deed is signed by both Samuel and his first wife Mary (Samuel's second wife is Sarah Carman, daughter of Thomas Carman, brother of Adam/Mary Burtis!).  So by establishing Samuel, his brother Adam can also be established with more certainty than some of the previous theories put forth.

6.  The will of Isaac German (that is how he spells it in his will, but is generally considered to be Germain) lists the following people - 1. His daughter Margaret  (Phila Titus is supposed to be daughter of Jacob Titus and Margaret Germain). Isaac wills to his son a debt owed to him by Jacob Titus.  Witness to Isaac's will is Benjamin Carman, probable father of Adam Carman.  Isaac's other daughter Ann is named in his will as wife of Joseph Pettit.  Joseph Pettit and Ann are parents of Sarah Pettit - who marries Stephen Carman, who in turn is grandson of  Benjamin Carman and Nephew of Adam.  The odds are staggering if Adam Carman / Benjamin Carman / Jacob Titus / Isaac German are not of the same family line.

7. In a notarized document dated 18 December 1989: "I John Forrest Peavey, declare the following to be true. Sometime in the past, in the fall of 1980, I was going through some of the papers in genealogical collection of my father-in-law at the request of my wife Ann Gordon Carman Peavey.  At this time I ran across what purported to be an extract from the Titus Family Bible which gives the descent of Adam Carman who wrote: "My father was Benjamin, son of Caleb (Carman)". 

Adam who married Millicent Johnston (John2, John-3, john-4, John-5, Adam/Amelia)

1. Adam/Amelia's father John-5 and Adam/Mary Burtis are brothers and he was probably named after his Uncle Adam/Mary Burtis, a common practice back then.

2. The name of Millicent Johnston has been perpetuated by the research journals of William Stillwell Carman.  I have read some of the source letters for his information and it appears that the originator of this name was Adam's grandson, Thomas Carman of Canada. Researchers have spent much time trying to locate her family by the name of  Millicent Johnston.  But it appears that this is the proper 'British" spelling of her name because 3 other grandchildren from Long Island state her name was Amelia Johnson, and although I still haven't traced her line - Johnson's are numerous in South Hempstead.  So from here on out she is referred to as Amelia Johnson.  And with the proper identification of her name, I'm hoping that we can identify her family soon.

3. As mentioned above, five of Adam/Amelia's grandchildren state that his father was John and they also remember that he had brothers John and Israel. That is where the family memory ends.  Linking of John-5 to John-4 and back is done through the arguments put forth primarily by Henry Alanson Treadwell in his manuscript on the Carmans, collection of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society library.  Having researched every other John available as a potential father for Adam, I have found nothing to contradict his conclusions or found any another John to fit the facts.  And when an assumption is made about Mary Smith, the known wife of John-5, that she was the Mary Smith who was daughter of Jonathan "Black" Smith and Elizabeth Tredwell, then we have a pedigree that involves the all the key families associated with the Carmans - "Rock" Smiths, Dentons, Tredwells, Gildersleeves and almost unbelievably a link to Rachel Stacy who married John Hicks as third wife, the second wife of John Hicks being Florence Carman - the widow of John-1 Carman!

Ironically, Adam/Phila was given the nickname of "Odd Adam" by researcher Cynthia Roberts because he didn't fit into any line she could prove.  I find the nickname appropriate because the first eight generations of my line are John-1, John-2, John-3, John-4, John-5, Adam-6, John-7, John-8…. Truly the "odd" one in the lot!

Records, especially in the Seaman Family Genealogy use reference to "Great Adam" coming from the marriage of Seaman daughter and Carman son in direct lineage to him, this circumstantially fits this Adam as a descendant of a direct line of John Carmans.  Also Adam lived to the ripe old age of 90 and had a son Adam as well, which may have been where the title came from - great in age.

The Fourth Adam

Here we may have a true mystery. For this Adam is an African-American.  We have no family records for him.  But we do have a documented and published speech he made.  Now his coming to be can easily be guessed at - slavery was still in existence when this Adam was born.  And a master's straying into their female slave's quarters was not uncommon.  And it was also fairly common for this child to be given the name of it's father, whether the father acknowledged to child's birth or not.

All of the first three above Adams appear on U.S. Census and on the census they recorded race.  All of the above Adams are "white", so that would eliminate any of the first three as being this fourth Adam, as they recorded it on the census in those days as "Mulatto" or "Black" for men of colour.  From his speech we only know he is an adult.  Two potential fathers can be peculated about. 1) Adam/Mary Burtis had a son born in 1751 baptized "at point of death" per church records - was this a cover up for this "Black Adam's birth".  2) There are several later African-American births that are given the names of siblings of the Adam/Phila Titus line, and it is known there was something that made this Adam's in-laws extremely upset with him.  These would be the prime suspects.