I am trying to confirm that an ancestor traveled west with Kit Carson and John Fremont in 1842-1846, in one or several of their expeditions to map out western trails. I am having trouble locating any sort of listing or schedule of the expedition members. It appears that there were several expeditions to California and at least two appeared in published Congressional reports.
I have not yet located a source that lists the presence or enlistment of general members of these forays. I don't have reason to know whether such exists, though I suppose as government expeditions there may have been some reporting or pay schedule. It's also a subject of study as a historical event.
If it helps, my specific ancestor born 1809 would've been in his early to mid-30s for the expeditions, and the timing of his children did not seem to clearly preclude any of the missions. His name was Harberd Rose, but with half a dozen different spellings and nicknames and misspellings: Harbird, Herberd, Harbert, Horbane, Harbans, Hary, etc. I have him in North Carolina 1840 and Kentucky 1850, finally settling in Kansas.
Post-Script (8/18/2014): After discussing this myth more with family, my partner did research on different people in the same line. She started with ancestors of my grandfather, from whom the myth started. She eventually determined that it was most likely a different line, one where my 4th-great-grandfather was probably merely in California at the right time and maybe knew Kit Carson and John Fremont. My ancestor was there early on, but was probably not part of one of the expeditions and may not have had much if any interaction with that group.
I would still be interested if anybody knew of a source for information about these trips, or a source that covers a number of such historical expeditions. It would confirm that my ancestor was not part of an official expedition there.
