Something unexplainable and something you can't explain are two different things. The parents of a set of my third Great Grandparents, John L. Falkner and his wife, Susan "Susie" Webster, were something I couldn't explain, but not unexplainable. They were the parents of Sarah Frances Falkner, my maternal Grandfather's grandmother, through his mother, Penny Wayne Turner. Penny had lived long enough for me to meet her. I remember her, but she passed when I was yet a small child. While John's family tree is still something I am butting my head up against, I haven't given up. With the help of DNA, and matches in Kentucky, I know the people he came from, but I can't tell you how he came from them, or why they left him behind. Not so with Susan.
I knew Susan had been a Webster, before she showed up in the 1850 census as a married woman. They lived in Anson County, with a very old and surviving newspaper, and their names had appeared in the paper when they wed, as if they were important. Sadly, other factors pointed to the fact that they were not, as there were no Wills, land documents or divisions, probate files or information that attached them to other people they were related to. Except that the newspaper had revealed she was a Webster. She had also had a son, James Coleman, before her marriage, who was a Webster. He would embrace the Faulkner name at times, too, but he was not a biological Faulkner. There were not many Websters in Anson County at the time, which made things simpler, but there was one, a woman named Nancy, and when I found her, I figured it out, and I found Erasmus Preslar, the father of her children.
I covered the story of Nancy Webster when I was doing my series of posts I called "30 Mothers in 30 Days" while recovering from surgery a few years back. The link is above. Sometimes death and tragedy created vile disadvantages for widows and orphans, and desperate girls became mistresses instead of wives. Nancy was very young when she had at least six children with Erasmus Preslar, because she had followed her sister, Mary, who had married Erasmus's brother, Elias Preslar, Sr., and moved to Simpson County, Mississippi. Nancy remarried there and had eight more children with a mixed-race former seaman, named Enoch Parrott or Perritt. Enoch was from South Carolina and his father, Captain Thomas Encoh Parrott, was a Revolutionary War Patriot, born in Christchurch, Middlesex, Virginia and died in Fairfield County, South Carolina in 1797. Captain Parrotts wife was named Francis Lucinda "Choctaw Annie" Port, and there is where Enoch's non-white status came from. At any rate, we can surmise that Nancy and her family were considered a rather lowbrow people, but they are mine. Once I figured it out and hooked the horse up to my wagon, people found me, found it and now I have DNA matches in Thru lines from six of Nancy's eight Parrott children, about 8 or 9 apiece, and 18 different people descended from her daughter Nancy Jr. These folks have no other connection to my family tree or the area my kin all came from, so this is cemented in my mind. Nancy's story fascinates me, but what about Erasmus? This is his story, but there's not as much to it.
Erasmus died a young man, predeceased his father, Elias Preslar, and is mentioned in his will. He left but a trifling trace of himself in the sands of time, but passed on his DNA at any rate, which many never had the chance to do.
There's an advantage that comes when someone famous is descended from the same ancestors you are. It may be too far back to call them family, perhaps, but because they are famous, there's a chance some really good, a professional team, even, has taken up the chore of researching that person's family tree and have the time and budget to fly to foreign countries looking for ancient baptism records and such. In the case of the Preslar's, that has happened. The famous subject - The King Himself, Elvis Presley.
Elvis was not a patrilineal Preslar/Presley. There had been a break in the branch of his family tree. His paternal great grandmother, Rosalia Presley had several children out of wedlock without naming a father, so the Presley name had descended to him through her. He was still a Presley, and still a descendant of Andreas Pressler, as I am, he just would not have been able to have taken a Y-tdna test and ended up among Presley's.
The list below is of Elvis's family tree back to Johannes Valentin and my lines are in it. Elvis and I both descend from son #6 on the list, Andreas, or Andrew. The family were Palatine Germans who traveled first to England and had then set sail to New York, arriving on June 14, 1710, on a ship called Fame, with Captain Walter Houxton.
Descendants of Johannes Valentin Pressler by Ed Dunn
The Preslar/ Presley name, like many of those from early settlers to America, has gone through many deviations due to local dialects and phonetic spelling. This happened especially to German and Central to Eastern European settlers in an English-speaking Colony. Seen early on with a "B", it quickly became Anglicized to a "P". Erasmus and Elvis both trace back to son Andreas, born in 1701.
Personally, I have Preslar/ Preslar lines. The other stems from a fifth Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Presley, who married Tillman Helms Jr., daughter of Thomas Preslar and his wife, Sarah Culpepper. Thomas was also a son of Andreas Pressler.
Erasmus was the son of Elias Preslar, Sr. and his wife, Nancy Martin. Because of the location where they lived, I believe Nancy Martin was somehow related to the John Martin (1801-1888), who intermingled with my Turner ancestors who lived in the same area. We don't know the dates that Erasmus was born or died, but he was deceased prior to his father's Will of 1835, and his oldest son, Calvin Webster, was born in 1819, so expecting him a young father, we can estimate his year of birth as around 1799/1800.
The surname of this one family was fluid, as Elias is seen as "Presley" in the 1790 and 1800 census records.
In his Land Grant file, the same man is seen as Elias Preslar. His grand was on Lanes Creek and joined Hosea Little and his own property.
While Elias appears in many deeds, records and transactions from early Anson, Erasmus does not. He never owned land or appeared in Court. Above he is gifted land from his brother, John.
The first mention of Erasmus's name was in a deed granted from Elias Preslar to Calvin Webster dated November 8, 1834, Elias deeded property to Calvin Webster, "for and in consideration of the natural love & affection he hath and bears toward s the aforesaid Calvin Webster who he has thus far raised and who is reported to be an illegitimate son of his son, his son's son. Erasmus Preslar dec'd by Nancy Webster for the above reasons."
The property given to Calvin was likely Eramus's share of his father's lands had he lived.
There were two tracts, one of 60 acres and the other 100, bordering the lines of Jordan Woodward, Ann Maness and the later one, John Duck on Flag Fork Branch.
Calvin would sell his property in 1840 to Andrew J Davis and move to Mississippi.
This was the same Lane's Creek Property gifted him by his grandfather.
Nancy Webster had six Webster children altogether, presumably the children of Erasmus Preslar, although the younger two, I'm not certain about.
1) Calvin Webster Preslar (1819- before 1880) Moscow, Polk County, Texas. Married Martha Thurman. 9 children. William Roseberry, Benjamin Franklin, Amanda Jane, Laura Ann, Francis C., Sarah E., Lydia, James Calvin, Minerva Octavia.
2) Melissa Holly (1820-1872)
3) Susan Webster (1827-1900) Married John Faulkner.
4) John B. Webster (1832 -1880) Married Margaret Ann Copeland
5) Joseph S. Webster (1835 -1872) Died in Tennessee.
The Will of Elias Preslar
Elias penned his will with the usual prequel.
He bequeathed to his sons Elias Jr. and Levi with the stipulations that they take care of their mother, Nancy, until her death, 250 acres on Lanes' Creek.
The other tract bequeathed to those two sons was one he was granted on December 11, 1802, and two he had purchased from Absolom Caudle in 1830 for 75 acres on Lanes Creek.
To his daughter Molcy, he gave furniture, a gray mare and saddle and a cow and calf. To his wife, Nancy, he gave his black mare, all of his stock of cattle and hogs which did not go to his children, and the balance of all Household items and furniture.
To his son Levi, he gave a cow and calf and half of his farming tools. To Elias, Jr. , he gave the other half of his farming tools.
To his daughter Tabitha, he gave one hundred dollars and the proceeds of a sale he ordered in Item 6.
He willed the balance of the land sale to be divided between his surviving children.
He made his wife, Nancy and two sons, Levi and Elias Jr. co-executors.
The Will of Elias Preslar was witnessed by William A. Morris, Jr. and Calvin Preslar, aka Calvin Webster, his grandson. Calvin had carried on the Preslar name after all.
Elias had outlived his sons John, Erasmus and Salathiel.
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