Note that the question mark after the Gibson is because it appears in only one file in Ancestry.Com, their World Family Tree. It is never been seen in any other document, and is to be considered as a "possible".

There is a strong probability Christopher Houston "Kit" CARSON was a descendent of Alexander Harvey CARSON, the first known Carson in this line.  The following information has been obtained from creditable sources, but in genealogy, there is a great chance of error.

FIRST GENERATION

1    Alexander Harvey CARSON was born in Scotland and died after 1718. He was thought to be a Presbyterian clergyman. The known children of Alexander Harvey CARSON were:
   +2     William CalvinCARSON
    1263 John CARSON
    1264 Samuel CARSON
    1265 James CARSON
    1266 Alexander CARSON
    
4     Eleanor (Gordan) McDUFF died in Rowan County, North Carolina.  She was married to (1267) Unknown McDUFF.  He died in Rowan County, North Carolina.  Their known child was:
   +3   Eleanor Jane (McDuff) CARSON

SECOND GENERATION

2    William Calvin CARSON was born in Ulster, Northern Ireland and died in 1776 in Iredell County, North Carolina. He married  (3) Eleanor Jane (McDuff) CARSON, who was born in Wilmarnock, Scotland and died in Iredell County, North Carolina. One of  their children was:
    +6        Thomas Gibson (?) CARSON Sr.
      
THIRD GENERATION

6     Thomas Gibson (?) CARSON Sr. was born in 1710 in County Down, Ireland. It was said to be in a small town, now deserted, at the foot of some mountains, not far from Newry, County Down, Ireland. He immigrated in 1773 to Charleston, SC from Newry, Ulster, Ireland, sailing in the ship "Elliott" on June 30 and arriving on Aug. 20, 1773.  It was a hard trip, and storms added sailing time. It is said it took four months to cross from Ireland to America. There were about 40 people in the group, including McGoughs and McDowells, who were all friends and neighbors.

The family originally settled in the Abbeville district of South Carolina, which was heavily Scotch-Irish. He was in the military in 1780 and 1781 in Georgia and Tennessee, serving as a horseman in Captain Joseph Carson’s Company of the South Carolina Militia, and participated in the battles of Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock under Colonel William Bratton. He was certified as a Revolutionary War Soldier by Colonel Elijah Clarke and received bounty land in Washington County for his services. Georgia sources show he served in the Battalion of Minute Men. He applied for an invalid soldier’s pension. His home was burned by the Tories during the Revolutionary War.

He was in Wilkes County GA in 1785. He signed a will on 1 Sept., 1789 In Wilkes Co., GA. "Will of THOMAS CARSON of Wilkes Co. and State of Georgia, being sick and weake of body..to my son WILLIAM who lives in South Carolina a Negro woman to be given him after my deceased of my beloved wife MARGET(sic) CARSON. The half of the survey or tract of land whereon I now live I give to my son THOMAS (that is the lower part lying down on the river)..my son JOHN shall have at his mothers death the half of all my stock of every kind...to my son DAVID the plantation whereon I now live (i.e.) the upper half including the plantation and mansion together with 2 negroes..at decease of my wife...to my son ADAM the other half of my stock and the child of my Negro pat who appears to be pregnant...to my dau. ELIZABETH my Negro boy and a Negro which is due me from Edmond Daniell and George Reid together with black mare now in his possession, and ½ of my house furn...at decease of my wife...the other half of house furn. To belong to my son DAVID...to my son JOSEPH a tract of land cont. 200 acres lying on Richland Creek in Greene County...Appt’s my two sons JOHN CARSON and DAVID CARSON to be Exors…Signed: THO. CARSON. Wit: bef. Wm. Phillips. Rachel Dunn and JEAN CARSON. Rec. 10 July 1791. He died on 10 July, 1799 in Wilkes Co., GA.

He was married to (7) Margaret (McDowell) CARSON on 12 Aug., 1734 in Tyrone County, Northern Ireland. Margaret (McDowell) CARSON was born on 12 June 1713 in Tyrone Co., Ulster, Ireland. She died on 16 Dec., 1794 and is buried in the Greensboro Cemetery, Greene Co., GA. Both she and Thomas Gibson(?) Carson Sr. were believed to be Presbyterian. Children of Thomas Gibson(?) And Margaret (McDowell) CARSON were:
    +8     William A. Sr. CARSON
    +9     Thomas  C. Jr. CARSON
    +10   John William CARSON
    +11    Adam C. CARSON
    +12    David CARSON
    +13    Joseph CARSON
    +14    Elizabeth (Carson) McDOWELL

SOURCES:

1.     Private correspondence from Bill Moore quoting Ervin R. Hillhouse (HYPERLINK "mailto:wbmoore@crosslink.net"). Received 18 Feb., 1998. (Note that Hillhouse was a retired navy Chief Petty Officer who made an extensive study of the Carson family genealogy. He died in1992. He made an error when he stated that the Brazos County Carson family was not descended from Thomas Carson).

2.     GEDCOM file from Ancestry.com, file 49177, downloaded 3/27/00 from HYPERLINK mailto: mjohn4@cha.bellsouth.net"

3.     Thomas Carson Sr. family Bible. This Bible was in the possession of Mary Jane Carson Hicks, but was destroyed when the Aretus Williams Hicks’ home burned on 17 Dec., 1920.

4.     Greene Co., GA Misc. Records, Book A, 1787 – 1801, pages 64 – 65.

5.    "The McGough Family Page", Website address: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cescott/. This family was on the ship from Ireland to America, and there was a considerable amount of intermarriage between the McGough and Carson families.  This website is very interesting from the standpoint of history of the Scotch-Irish people as well as our family. Note that there are several other McGough family websites with information on the Carsons and their neighbors in the early days.

6.    "Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution", Bobby Gilmer Moss, Limestone College, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD, 1983 (page 151).

7    Greene County Georgia Miscellaneous Records, Book A, 1787 - 1801 (pages 64 & 65).

8.    URL:  http://history.cc.ukans.edu/families/kitcarsn.html

9. The South Carolina Advertiser and General Magazine, Aug. 20, 1773.  Information
      on ships arriving in Charleston, SC.  See: http://englishamerica.home.att.net