Finding Faulkner: The Progeny | William S Faulkner {Gen 3}

It started, as good quests always do, with a family tale.

William S Faulkner (Joseph, James, William OR Priscilla, William, William) was born about 1810 in Orange Co, New York to parents (and first cousins) Joseph Faulkner and Priscilla Faulkner.

William married Cassandra LNU. 

The couple had at least one child:

• Thaddeus W Faulkner b. 1846 in Pennsylvania

This family is mostly an assumption on my part for the moment. William is found on only three census records. 1850, 1860, and 1870.  In 1850 he is listed in the same household as his mother, Priscilla, his brothers James, aged 26, and John, aged 15, plus a woman named Cassandra Faulkner, age 39, and a boy named Thaddeus Faulkner, aged 4. In 1860 he is listed in the same household as his mother Priscilla, his brother John, aged 24, and Cassandra, aged 49. In 1870 it is just William and Cassandra, he is listed as a farmer, she is keeping house. 

The Bull Book records that William was a professor at the academy at Dundaff, PA, and that Cassandra taught school there as well, commuting on horseback.  That book also presumes that Cassandra is a sibling of William's. That assumption is echoed (or perhaps take from - as it is referenced in the Bull Book) in the book Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania page 334. I do not know where either author discovered their information.

If Cassandra is a sibling of William then who is Thaddeus? Plus both William and Cassandra were reported to be the same age.

The Bull Book further states that William died November 5th 1876. Cassandra appears in one last census, the 1880 census, as a boarder, and single (not widowed). What I find interesting about this census is that she is in the same location as in 1870, and the neighbors are the same. Could a relative have taken over the farm when William died?

And who was Thaddeus?

So many questions, so few answers.

~This particular family line is proving to be very challenging, as you will see in the coming weeks. The family of Joseph and Priscilla Faulkner are showing to be elusive and vague. I intend to supply what I know, maybe something will ring a bell with someone.~

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