Searching for your ancestors is like a big hunting expedition. You dig & dig for the right information, only to find that the document or database that you thought would have the answers only had more questions. I have come to that line… I am questioning everything we’ve ever known about William Preston Wilson Sr. who married Polly Chagum (daughter of James & Molly). I found in an old document for Connecticut U.S. Pensioners, 1818-1872 a William Wilson, but all it says is “See previous book” – A LOT of help there, NOT! I found a William Wilson in the Revolutionary War Pension Index on Ancestry.com – that doesn’t give me a lot either just his name, state, rank, stipend and a number. UGH!!! This is getting frustrating!! LOL!!
I went to the DAR (Daughters of American Revolution) website, and found only one William Wilson in their database, and his birth & death date & places don’t match and his wife was Sarah Rust. Whew, I’m off to check out the NSSAR website to see what I can find.
I wonder if William Preston Wilson was even in the Revolutionary War. I am wondering if he was a white man at all. I can’t find anything of his life before the Lighthouse Tribe settlement. No parents, nothing in Fairfield at all, except a William S. Wilson married a Phebe Wilson on 16 Feb 1838 in Stratfield, Fairfield, CT. My gut is telling me that William Preston Wilson Sr, was not white but that he was an Indian who could pass as a white man…. but, my gut has been wrong before, not often, but it has.
Much Love from Michigan, Sherry