Claims that Ben Carson, Donald Trump's pick for Housing and Urban Development Secretary, grew up in public or subsidized housing can be comprehensively debunked by DailyMail.com.

The assertions that Carson's family received some form of assistance for their housing was made to the New York Times and to NPR by Armstrong Williams, his long-time spokesman, when asked how the retired neurosurgeon was qualified for the HUD role.

But documents obtained by DailyMail.com in the course of a wide-ranging investigation into the truth about Carson's biography show that his parents bought their Detroit home before he was born.

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Private housing: This is the home Ben Carson's parents bought in 1950, before he was born, and where he was brought up. It was newly-built and not public or subsidized

Pick: Ben Carson is Donald Trump's nominee for Housing and Urban Development Secretary

Private: The newly-built house purchased by Ben Carson's parents in 1950, before he was born. It was where he grew up making the claim by his spokesman that he had experience 'growing up in subsidized housing' - or in 'public housing'

Possession: Documents show how in 1965 Robert Carson Jr handed the property to his former wife, Carson's mother. Although Carson calls her Sonya she is legally known as John or Johnnie

Private: The full details of the quit claim make clear the Carson childhood home was not public or subsidized housing

Williams made the key claim in an interview on Monday's NPR Morning Edition.

He was asked by host Rachel Martin: 'Well then let me ask you to flesh out some of Dr. Carson's resume. We, of course, know about his medical career, very successful surgeon. But what in his background prepares him for this particular post?'

Williams replied: 'His life growing up in subsidized housing, growing up in poor communities, understanding what happens, that you can go into the communities and build houses all you want.'

He made a separate claim to the New York Times which reported that 'he did spend part of his childhood in public housing said a close friend, Armstrong Williams.'

It later issued a correction to that statement, saying: 'The friend, Armstrong Williams, said Monday that Mr. Carson had never lived in government housing.'

In fact DailyMail.com had disclosed the existence of the house purchase last year - meaning the New York Times could have fact-checked its story in advance.

The document shows that Robert Carson Jr, the HUD secretary-designate's father, bought the house in August 1950.

It was newly built, by the Cora Development Company, and the warranty deed shows that it was an entirely private sector sale - no subsidies were involved.

The Carsons were the first family to live in the home built on Lot 558 on Deacon Street, now located at the street address #1860.

In 'Gifted Hands,' Dr. Carson described the modest home as 'about the size of many garages today ... one of those early pre-fab post-World War II square boxes.'

He estimated that the whole building 'wasn't 1000 square feet,' but said it was 'in a nice area where the people kept their lawns clipped and showed pride in where they lived.'

The document was uncovered as DailyMail.com pieced together the true story of Carson's childhood, much of which contrasted to claims he had previously made in his biography, in a documentary program he took part in, and in other public statements.

Carson had made his mother's extraordinary life story a central part of his failed campaign for the Republican White Hosue candidacy.

In his books, speeches and interviews, he has told how 'Sonya' was one of a family of 24, married when she was just 13 and divorced his father after discovering he was a bigamist who had a second family.

Family at home: Ben Carson shared a picture of himself on a PBS documentary with his brother (left) and friends in the street where he grew up. The documentary - Finding Your Roots - appeared not to check his claims about his parents and their families despite being hosted by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr

Mother: Johnnie - 'Sonya' - Carson bought the childhood home Ben was brought up in with her then husband, Robert

But little of that story was exactly as he relayed it – although the truth appears to be just as inspirational.

Our investigation also raised questions over the methods of a Harvard professor who investigated Carson's ancestry for a PBS miniseries in 2006 and made no documentary checks on the stories the now-HUD secretary-designate told about his parents.

Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr became notorious for concealing Ben Affleck's slave-owning ancestors in an episode of Finding Your Roots and was then revealed to have wrongly called Affleck's mother a 'freedom rider'.

His series was suspended as a result of DailyMail.com's investigation. The disclosure about flaws in his work on Carson was never looked into by PBS, which broadcasts it.

Carson had claimed of his childhood and parents, at his address to the Fellowship Foundation National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 in front of President Obama: 'My mother and father got divorced early on.

'My mother got married when she was 13. She was one of 24 children. Had a horrible life. Discovered that her husband was a bigamist, had another family.'

The full speech is reproduced in his latest book, 'One Nation'.

However DailyMail.com uncovered four separate documents suggesting Sonya’s true name is actually Johnnie. There are no publicly accessible records that name her as Sonya.

According to U.S. Census information, Carson's mother is between two to four years older than she has claimed. And, far from being married at 13, the records show she was still single and attending school at 14, living at home with many of the 15 children her parents are recorded as having.

Carson had previously claimed she had only a third-grade education. Records show that she was still in school in the fifth grade.

It is possible that Carson's description of his mother's third-grade education refers to her level of attainment, not her years in the classroom.

Dr Carson's father was Robert Solomon Carson, a Baptist minister who died in 1992 in Detroit at age 77, leaving behind a wife named Mary.

He was also survived by a stepdaughter, Fairell Tubbs, who said she was at his wedding around five years before his death, but did not know the details of his previous marriages, if any.

Public records inspected by Daily Mail Online show no evidence of Robert Solomon Carson ever marrying or divorcing 'Sonya' Copeland.

In chapter two of the 1990 memoir, the Republican politician describes his parents' story: 'Both my parents came from big families: my mother had 23 siblings, and my father grew up with 13 brothers and sisters.'

'They married when my father was 28 and my mother was 13. Many years later she confided that she was looking for a way to get out of a desperate home situation.'

A letter attributed to Sonya Carson, reprinted in 'Gifted Hands,' states: 'As the mother of Ben and his brother, Curtis, I had a lot of challenges.'

'Being one of twenty-four children, getting married at age thirteen, and later having to get a divorce after finding out my husband was a bigamist were just a few of them.'

Census records also shed some light on the Copeland family that produced Dr. Carson's mother. It appears to have been made up of 15 children. The latest census records which are public are from 1940.

Aid: Armstrong Williams, who made the claim, has helped Ben Carson as spokesman, is a long-time friend, and a broadcaster who has had the retired surgeon on his show

Clean up: How Armstrong Williams reframed his description of Ben Carson's childhood

Cleaned-up: How The New York Times corrected its initial report on Ben Carson's appointment

Mislead: Mike Huckabee had to take back this Tweet - and he blamed the 'fake' New York Time

The 1930 and 1940 census records indicate inconsistent ages for some members of the family. But taking either account, Carson’s mother is two to four years older than Sonya's apparent age, whom current public records show was born in 1927 and is 87 years old.

The next official document shows that in 1950, Robert Solomon Carson bought the house at 1860 Deacon Street where Ben Carson was born and brought up.

The doctor's dad is recorded as buying it with 'Johnnie,' 'his wf' – wife. The deed that recorded the Carsons' home ownership does not include any proof of their marriage.

After an examination of city, state and national records, DailyMail.com was unable to find any marriage record for Robert Solomon Carson and Sonya Copeland.

The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, which covers Chattanooga, Tennessee – where the Copelands had been living when they were supposedly wed – found no details of a union in any year between a male Carson and a female Copeland.

In 1959, according to Carson's memoir, his happy childhood ended when 'Daddy left home for good'.

He has frequently said the departure came as a consequence of his mother's discovery that his dad was a 'bigamist.'

And in a 1988 profile of Ben in the Detroit Free Press's Sunday magazine 'Detroit,' Sonya described her struggles after she learned of Robert Carson’s 'betrayals with women and with drugs.'

'The man’s sins were so many and so extensive,' the Free Press reporter wrote, 'that when his young wife finally figured out most of the truth, the shock overcame her.'

'She wound up in a mental hospital for a time, saving up her sleeping pills and thinking about suicide.'

Back home: Ben Carson took Donald Trump to his childhood home in September

The bigamy story is curious: DailyMail.com found no evidence of any divorce records, or any documents suggesting Robert Solomon Carson was married – until much later in life.

He and Ben's mother were registered as joint owners of their Deacon Street home until 1965, a detail that differs from Dr. Carson's account of the property's status.

In his book's telling, he, his brother and mother moved to Boston to stay with his mother’s older sister Jean Avery, and her husband William, who agreed to take them in.

In 'Gifted Hands,' the doctor recalled: 'With no financial resources to fall back on, Mother knew she couldn't keep up the expenses of living in our house, modest as it was.'

'The house was hers, as part of the divorce settlement. So after several months of trying to make it on her own Mother rented out our house, packed us up and we moved away.'

'We moved to Boston in 1959 and stayed until 1961,' he added in the 1990 memoir, 'when Mother moved us back to Detroit.'

It is not clear when Carson, his brother and mother moved back into the Deacon Street home: Upon returning to Detroit, Carson’s mother initially moved the family 'into a multi-family dwelling just across the tracks from a section called Delray,' he wrote.

But Carson added that his mother said: 'Boys just wait. We’re going to make it back to our house on Deacon Street. We may not be able to afford it now, but we’ll make it.'

What is clear is that in 1965, a 'Quit Claim Deed' shows a transfer of ownership to Johnnie Carson, 'grantor's former wife,' from Robert Carson Jr., 'an unmarried man.'

Carson's mother owned the home until February 14, 1973 when a warranty deed shows that 'Johnnie Carson, a woman' transferred ownership to John Saddle, 'a single man.'

The following month, records show, John Saddle transferred ownership of the house to Willie Copeland Jr., who is believed to be Dr Carson’s first cousin.

Johnnie Copeland, in 1930 and 1940, is recorded as having an elder brother Willie; the 1940 census showed him living with his wife and Willie Jr., then ten months old.

In 1975 the Deacon Street home appears to have left the family’s ownership after it was transferred to the government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development - meaning that it became public housing long after Dr Carson had left it.