Finding Faulkner: The Progeny | Samuel Faulkner {Gen 3}

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

Samuel Faulkner (Robert, Samuel, William) was born about 1811 in Wallkill, Orange Co, New York, to parents Robert Faulkner and Sally Ann (LNU).

Samuel married Elizabeth Ann "Betsey" Lyons 19 Feb 1834 in Wayne Co, New York.

The couple had at least eight children: (all born Wayne Co, New York)

• Hannah A Faulkner b. about 1837 d. UNK m. (1)William M Hawkins (2) Jacob Brown
• Samuel A Faulkner b. about 1839 d. UNK
• Robert N Faulkner b. about 1842 d. 9 Jul 1863
• Loomi M Faulkner b. 29 Dec 1843 d. 8 Dec 18??
• Eliza A Faulkner b. 21 Jun 1845 d. 6 Nov 1921 m. (1) William Shepherdson (2) Ezra Nay
• Sallie Maria Faulkner b. 25 Oct 1851 d. 30 Jul 1919 m. William D Watson
• James William Faulkner b. 24 Dec 1853 d. 3 Dec 1930 m. Hannah Louisa Smith
• John Henry Faulkner b. 26 Apr 1856 d. UNK m. Della J Rutherford

In 1863 Samuel enlisted in the Civil War. Samuel Faulkner died October 18th 1864 at Shenandoah, VA. from wounds received at the Battle of Cedar Creek, aka Bell Grove, Frederick County and Shenandoah Co. VA. Elizabeth Ann "Betsey" died April 5th 1882 in Decatur Co, IN where she moved with her son John Henry. Burial location of both Samuel and Betsey unknown.

Additionally - the surname 'Lyons' was given on Eliza's death certificate as her mother's maiden name -as most all the other information on that certificate was incorrect I am very hesitant to say this really is Betsey's maiden name.

This family group is the result of exhaustive research done by a descendant of Robert Faulkner. I have verified most of it, but more work needs to be done. The notes are quite extensive.

©Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Samuel Faulkner: Hiding In Plain Sight (52 Ancestors #7)

Samuel Faulkner is my favorite. I think because he was so hard to find. A multi-year brick wall that I just kept butting my head into until it finally cracked. One day a chink fell out and I quickly was able to tear the wall down.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

My introduction into the seductive world of genealogy came with a box of stuff from my grandmother, interesting family lore and Ancestry.com.

On my maternal side were Patriots, Pilgrims, Pioneers and suggestions at Royalty. Talk about Bright Shiny Objects! I quickly entered all my grandmother's research into my new Ancestry.com account and ... Oh My Gosh!! ... Well, I never! What?? By the end of an afternoon I had added centuries to my family tree! Centuries!

Well, that was easy. Mom's side - DONE.

I know, you are either laughing hysterically or totally aghast at this point. Wait. Things were soon to take a turn. I was about to get schooled.

So on to my dad's side. The Faulkner side. No one had ever done any research on my dad's side, that I was aware of. I actually had to build it from scratch. And, to make it even more interesting my dad was an only child. And had recently died. My mom had a few notes from a second cousin who could not be less interested in genealogy - so the quest began. With no one to consult on this family I set out to forge a new trail into the wilderness.

Samuel Faulkner is my 4th great grandfather on my paternal side, but I did not know this for a very long time. The oldest piece of information I had at the beginning of my quest was the name of my 2nd great grandfather. My father has started a file labeled "Operation Grandpa" which I did not find until after he had died, and it made me laugh.  He had been searching for the mythical Faulkners too!

Using Ancestry, I plugged in all the information my dad had gathered.  I immediately found some good census, birth and death records. I found marriage and divorce records. I found obituaries. I found children. And blessedly I did not find one single Family Tree to mess me up!

I contacted Historical Societies, wrote to cemeteries, joined Yahoo groups, posted to message boards. I posted public trees on every site I could think of hoping to lure a cousin or two. I ordered genealogy and history books through the library that I couldn't view online.

I discovered some second cousins I did not know I had, and managed to track them down via long evenings Googling. That hard work proved unfruitful for family info, but I gained brand new kin.

None of this was easy. There were a lot of misses. A lot of dead ends. A lot of "I'm sorry, we are unable to help you with your request". A lot of years searching in vain for a man with no name.

I can't even describe the twists and turns my research took. The one step forward two steps back. The high hopes dashed in an instant. And all the quitting. Throwing my hands up in disgust and walking away - muttering "it's impossible!" "it can't be done!".

But something kept pulling me back. I was a mad woman on a mission. Why was no one else researching this family? No one! I became very protective of MY Faulkners. Yes, My Faulkners. I had gone there. At this point I had invested 4 years of solely researching this particular family. Investing my own blood, sweat and tears. I lived and breathed Faulkner history. I was pretty annoying to be around.

With all the information I was able to gather I had been able to prove my way back to my 3rd great grandfather - a regionally famous man named James Faulkner - I wrote about his wife here.  Of course, in all the biographies and histories done on him there was never a mention of his father.

And I had a very strong candidate for my 5th great grandfather, William Faulkner. Very strong.
Early on in my research I was given a transcript of his will. By all indications this was my 5th great grandfather. And it listed 4 sons. Hallelujah!

Maybe.

So, how to get from James to William? Another year or so passed as I worked the four sons lines. I ruled out one right away as he was deceased and there was no mention of any offspring. Another was a Patriot and there had been some lineage work done on him. The third son married into the Bull family of New York, and traceable through extensive histories. That left Samuel. Invisible Samuel.

Plugging Samuel in to my database brought me nothing. I started my writing, searching, posting campaign yet again, to no avail. This man was invisible! This man who, at one time owned 1000 acres of land in Wallkill, New York was invisible! Another year passed and I sadly put my quest for Samuel away. Vowing to travel to New York one day to pick up the search in person. Time to get on with life. Time to rejoin the living.

Then it happened.

A week after Christmas.

2012.

A casual mention in a chat room about newly added unindexed records on FamilySearch.

Oh. Hell. Yes.

Locked in my Genealogy Cave - fueled on nothing but raw tenacity and coffee - eyes bleary and red from hours of scrutinizing the computer screen ....... there it was!

No. What? Did I do it? Did I just find Samuel?

Staring in shocked disbelief. Frozen in the moment. The quest was over. OVER.

Stumbling out of the Cave I began my happy dance. I did a little Church Lady, and cried tears of joy.

It was a wonderful, frustrating, magical 5 years. I learned a lot. Not only about my Faulkner family, but about researching from scratch and doing it right. Best lesson ever. This is why Samuel Faulkner is my favorite. I worked hard for him and was rewarded magnificently.

Samuel Faulkner was never really lost. Just hiding, in plain sight.

Finding Faulkner: The Progeny | Samuel Faulkner {Gen 1}

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

Samuel Faulkner was born to William and Mary in 1739/40, based on his grave marker. This date has not been proved. Presumed to have been born in Wallkill, Ulster Co, New York.

Samuel married Elizabeth Wilkin OR Helen Murray. Or both. See Finding Faulkner, parts 7, 8 and 9 for further information.

Samuel Faulkner's children include:

• Female 1 Faulkner b. 1763 d. UNK
• Female 2 Faulkner b. 1767 d. UNK
• David Faulkner b. 1769 d. bef 1860 - bachelor
• Robert Faulkner b. 1776
• Mary Faulkner b. 1778
• Col James Faulkner b. 1779
• John M Faulkner b. 1782
• Margaret Jane Faulkner b. 1783

According to land records, Samuel owned a sawmill and the Scotchtown Meetinghouse was located on a corner of his property. The History of Orange County records that Samuel was an elder of the Union Church at New Shawangunk.

Samuel Faulkner died 2 Apr 1811. He is buried in the Bloomingburg Rural Cemetery in Orange Co, New York

Finding Faulkner: Part Ten | And The Heavens Opened Up

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

Confused. Irritated. Exasperated, even.

I had come so far. Traveled the long and winding road. Compass pointed to my True North. Or was it Ithaca? Or Brigadoon? Have the years of bleary-eyed research been for naught? Did I get just so close, only to be stonewalled, again?

Samuel Faulkner was NOT French ...... was he? And, God as my witness, who the heck was Helen Murray? Somebody got some 'splainin' to do.

The original intent of the quest had been two-pronged. To prove or disprove the family tale, that our family descended from a Scottish Faulkner who immigrated to the Colonies in the early 1700's. And to link the family to the mysterious will of William Faulkender, that I felt in my bones was that immigrant, but needed to prove.

Let's lay out the facts. It's the only sound way to look at this conundrum.

We don't have to go back too far. And, perhaps we should just eliminate both Elizabeth Wilkin and Helen Murray since they were noted in books with no supporting documentation. Certainly another avenue of research, but not empirical to Finding Faulkner.

• Samuel Faulkner's wife was Elinor.
• Samuel Faulkner's sons were David, Robert, James and John M.
• Samuel Faulkner lived and died in Wallkill, New York. 
• There was only ONE Samuel Faulkner (spelled Falkener) in Wallkill in 1790, 1800 and 1810. (There was NO Samuel Faulkner in Wallkill in 1820 - lining up with the 1811 date of death)
• The only Faulkners (spelled Falkener) listed in Wallkill in 1790 were a James, a William and a Samuel.
• William Faulkender's will (abstract) dated 1783 listed sons: James, William Jr and Samuel.

I know. At this point it looks like I've done it. Right? It all looks good on paper. It all seemingly lines up. How can William Faulkneder NOT be the father of my Samuel? It could be that easy. Just say it is so, say I proved it, and walk away.

But I didn't prove it. There was still the question of the last name. Faulkender vs. Falkener vs. Faulkner. And really linking the whole thing together. You know, wrapping it up. Bringing it home.

Now, I know spelling was quite random in the 1700's. Many people were illeritate. There were a number of different languages being spoken in a small land area. Wallkill residents spoke Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish and French. That's a lot of different accents, even if they all learned to speak English. Which circles back to my original theory. Say "Faulkner" in your best, thickest Scottish accent. Sounds a lot like Faulkender, doesn't it?

So, who actually wrote the will? The original one. Not the abstract. Was it William? Mary, his wife? A neighbor, or some town official? If it was William, he'd certainly know how to spell his surname. And teach his children how to spell it too.

I needed to find that will. The original. Dang it. I needed to get to Albany, New York.

Shelving the quest, yet again, I began to hatch a scheme to get myself to New York......

Then it happened.

Sometime mid-March 2016 (you'd think I'd remember the exact date, wouldn't you?) I decided to tool around on Ancestry and see if I could find something new. They had uploaded "New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999"  a few months earlier (I was between subscriptions at the time) and I wanted to take a peek. When I opened William's profile in  Ancestry there was a new hint! From the wills collection!

Hands sweating, I held my breath and clicked on the image.

Disappointment. Again.

It was merely the handwritten transcript. Cool, sure, but not THE will. Intrigued, I knew I needed to do a good search of the records on my own, a better way to dig up records, anyway.

But wait ..... what was this? Off to the right, in the "suggested records" box? Another listing in the "New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999" One for a William H Faulkender.

Two questions ran through my head, William had a middle name? And, why hadn't this hint showed up as well? 

Clicking on it opened the Heavens and rained down the song of the Angels. (well, maybe not, but that's how I remember it) It was THE will and probate packet. The ACTUAL packet. Eight glorious pages of original handwriting, signatures and all.

Along about page three of the packet, 'Alice's Restaurant' lyrics came drifting into my head. "and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the following words:"

There it was. The signature. Or, should I say, the lack of signature. William was illiterate! (How often do you get excited about something like that?) He signed with an "X". The will was written in the hand of James Caldwall, one of three witnesses. Oh, and it got better. The probate documents contained the signatures of the sons William, James and Samuel. They were not great spellers, but they could write. And guess what? Each man spelled his name differently!

William Faulkender "X" signature on will

Wm Faulkner, James Faulknor, Samuel Fau?lner signatures on probate documents

Notation - not an "H"

Additionally, only the body of the will proper contained the Faulkender spelling. The probate papers recorded William's last name as Faulkner. And "H" was not his middle initial. It was a notation used throughout the will at the end of a line of text - perhaps a fancy hyphen. Transcription error!


Barring the discovery of the actual land deed Samuel signed in 1807 (ha!), whereas to compare signatures, or a time machine (I wish!), I feel this is as good as it gets. There were no birth certificates, no family photographs in the 18th century. No paper trail, as we know today, to prove lineage. I feel (mostly) satisfied, for now, to say that I have found what I was looking for. I have found Faulkner. And concluded the quest on American shores. Perhaps one day I will be able to continue the quest in William's homeland, Scotland. And maybe even learn why and how he came to immigrate to the Colony of New York over 300 years ago.

And just exactly how the family name was spelled!

Looks like it's time for a new quest!

Finding Faulkner: Part Nine | A Pinhole Of Light

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

Patience hat firmly camped upon my head, I set my sights on Samuel. His children had gotten me nowhere. His wife, still a mystery. With no documentation to back up the claim in the Blue Book, I felt I had to entertain other possibilities.

I took another look at the land records, and reviewed the county boundary map. I platted the land using this deed platter tool. I was able to give a reasonably good guess as to the location of Samuel's land based on landmarks and other, more recent, maps of the area. I knew that the land was originally situated in Ulster County, that it was annexed to Orange County in 1798, and by 1809 when Sullivan County was carved out of another piece of Ulster County, Samuel's land lay right along that boundary. I mean right along. Time to venture into Sullivan County!

First, I supposed that Samuel may have died, or was buried, in Sullivan County and not Orange County. I combed FamilySearch and Ancestry. I was disappointed to quickly discover that Sullivan County probate records were not listed among the offerings, even the unindexed, image only records. Plan B. Or was it X by now? Nothing had been easy on this quest, why should now be any different!

I contacted the Sullivan County Historical/Genealogical Society, the search fee was a non-refundable $40.00. None of their records were online. IF I was in New York I could visit the museum where the records are housed and search to my heart's content. If.

Well, that wasn't happening any time soon.

I decided to look elsewhere first, not wanting to spend $40.00 on an imagined hunch, at this point.

Digging ever deeper, one crumb led to another .......

On the Town of Wallkill ("where happy babies are born") website I found a nice write-up on the town's history. There I read this on the subject of churches, particularly presbyterian churches (Samuel was a presbyterian, remember?): A fifth church was organized in 1799 in an area between the present Fair Oaks and Bloomingburg. the meeting house was known as "The Old Union House." Oh!  Looking up Bloomingburg(h), I learned that it is just, I mean JUST inside the county line of Sullivan County. A crumb!

Back in the OCGNY yahoo group, I asked about this church. And further stated I was seeking Samuel Faulkner.

The answer?

Samuel was a church elder in 1799! According to the History of Orange County book, page 460  (which I had not previously seen) the church was called Union Church at New Shawangunk. The book also says that "This church had a house of worship known as the "Old Union House", on the present Shearer place, near the Bloomingburgh Mills, The cemetery still indicates the site of the early meeting-house."

Another crumb!

Where next? Why Find A Grave, of course! Guess what!? There is a Bloomingburg Rural Cemetery! Exactly where it should be, just inside the county line. Oh, and it gets better ....... guess who's buried there? Yup. And next to him? Helen. Could easily be Elinor, right?

But I needed to be certain.

I emailed the memorial creator to find out more. Funny story. She was doing research on another family linked to the Bulls and discovered this cemetery. She befriended the cemetery record keeper, (the woman who lives across the street from the cemetery, I kid you not!) and started helping log the names on Find A Grave. She had no more information but did give be the record keepers info., suggesting I try contacting her.

I did. It was a hoot!

She acquired the records when she bought the house. They were stored in the basement. She thought about giving them to the historical society (she may have by now, this was back in 2013), but people kept stopping by and I guess she liked to help out. Anyway, she had no more information.

But I had another three names. Next to Samuel are buried Helen Faulkner, Margaret Faulkner Horton and Gabriel H Horton.

Another crumb!

The Horton family and I had crossed paths previously. They are also woven into the Bull family genealogy and are another founding family of the Wallkill area. Perhaps a stroll down the Horton path might prove illuminating, I thought.

Illuminating ........ and confusing! (because, why not)

I found Gabriel H Horton in the Horton Genealogy  book. Page 131 - 132. It was a sketch on Harrison Faulkner Horton, Gabriel and Margaret's son. The author goes on to throw a monkey wrench into all my research: "Margaret Faulkner, the mother of Harrison, was the daughter of Samuel Faulkner and Helen Murray, who were early inhabitants of Orange Co, NY, and pioneers in Wallkill Township. Samuel Faulkner was of French origin. (what!?!) His wife Helen Murray came from Scotland. Samuel Faulkner and his brother Col. William Faulkner were staunch Whigs in 1776."

Oh now, come on. Just come on. French? And now there's Helen Murray. What happened to Elizabeth Wilkin? The part about Samuel's brother was encouraging, that's what I suspected as well. And it does line up with the will of William Faulkender, the quest is still pointing in the right direction.

I take this new information with a grain (boulder) of salt, the book was not sourced. However, in the interest of getting it right, I will need to investigate further.

To be continued .........

Finding Faulkner: Part Eight | The Patience Hat

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

Finding Samuel in the census records was easy. He was the only Samuel Faulkner in Wallkill. Determining who his household members were? Challenging. In 1790 His household contained two males over 16, three males under 16 and five females of any age. So, there could potentially have been 8 children, four sons (which had now been determined) and four daughters. In 1800 the household contained one female under 16, three males & two females under 26, one male under 45 and one male & one female over 46. All males still accounted for, but one daughter either died or had gotten married. And by 1810 the household contained one male and one female over 46 years old. Samuel and Elinor presumably.

That is the last census Samuel appears on.

Time to move laterally!

David, I already knew, was a dead end. The one and only time he ever appeared in the census was in 1850 in the household of James. I still have found no other records for him.

John M Faulkner took me on a bit of an adventure, but his trail stopped cold in Tioga County. I have not yet pursued it further.

Moving on to Robert, Ancestry rewarded me with a plethora of hints! I decided to follow that trail and see where it led. After filling in some facts with census records and adding Robert's wife Sally, I decided to take a look at Public member trees on Ancestry. There were well over 2,000 trees listing Robert! (Seems Robert and Sally were very fruitful.) Picking out a few that had actual sources (and not just copied Ancestry Family Tree info) I noticed several things. First, not one tree had Samuel as Robert's father, actually not one tree had any father for Robert. Second, all but a few did not have any record of Robert prior to 1850 when he removed to Indiana. New York state was listed as his birthplace on the 1850 and 60 census records, and most other Robert Faulkner researchers did have him born there. None of them showed any siblings for him, or any other particularly helpful information.

Of course not! Why should it get easy now?

But, there was one tree that had Wallkill as a possible residence! With Samuel as possibly his father! This was clearly the winner, this tree owner had done some digging and could maybe collaborate!

I immediately contacted the author of this tree to share my discovery, and find out if she had any further information.

Disappointingly, she has good research notes but no more information than I had. In fact she had less, as she had not discovered the land sales and could not confirm Wallkill as a birthplace. Her speculation on Samuel being Robert's father was based on the fact that there was a Samuel Faulkner and a Robert Faulkner listed next to each other on the 1810 Federal census, living in Wallkill. But she was never sure this was her man. We traded what we knew, but it was clear I was still on my own in this quest.

Back to Samuel. And the little town of Wallkill. And that will abstract that had proved so infuriating several years ago. On one hand I was excited that I had finally worked my way back far enough, in both place and time, to potentially connect the William Faulkender of 1784 to me. On the other hand, there were just no records to be found to prove this suspicion. Even with the confirmation of Samuel as my ancestor, I was turning up nothing else to prove that my Samuel was the Samuel in the Blue Book or the abstract. (See post HERE)

Drilling down, I looked next at Wilkin genealogy. If the Blue Book was correct then Elizabeth Wilkin was Samuel's wife. Was Elinor a nickname for Elizabeth? Not really. And amid all the marriage records I could find, there was nothing for a Samuel Faulkner. Or an Elizabeth Wilkin. The Blue Book author had cited "Agricola Wilkin's Bible" as the source for this information, but the current location of this bible remains a mystery. I posed my dilemma to the OCGSNY yahoo group to see if anyone there knew anything.

Seems we all had the same questions and no one had answers. I met a few Wilkin researchers who had been trying to solve the mystery for years. And these people were actually located in New York! They could go search the archives! Granted, none of them were following my specific line, I still seemed to be the only serious Faulkner researcher everywhere I went. Elizabeth was just a collateral curiosity.

The group did not fail to point me to interesting sources however, and I was able to learn a few more facts about Samuel; but no one could shed any light on Elizabeth Wilkin or her marriage to Samuel. I started anew my now all too familiar campaign of scouring WorldCat, armed with new leads from the group.

History books, biographies, published church records, I borrowed them all!

And, in the time since I begun this quest some of the material I had borrowed previously had been digitized! While waiting I dug into what I could now access online.

As the books began to trickle in I rushed to the library in the hope that my answers lay in the newest arrival. Although fascinating, fun, and by now familiar, as my "old friends" appeared, first in one book, then another, I was not making any helpful discoveries. There were plenty of Faulkners and Wilkins, but I was not finding the Faulkner or Wilkin I was looking for.

Disappointed, it became very clear following Elizabeth, or any of the Wilkins really, would get me no further.

Time to put on my patience hat and circle back to Samuel,  still hiding in plain sight.

To be continued.......................

Finding Faulkner: Part Seven | Serendipity and A Crashing Wall

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

When I left the search for James Faulkner's parent's behind it was spring of 2011. I'd been hard on the trail since late 2007, with fits and starts. I continued to dabble, periodically. I checked all the usual places for any new records. I tracked down some 2nd cousins I had no idea existed. (they had never heard of James) I sent emails (and snail mail!) to genealogical societies and cemeteries. I tried researching the McBride's. I went back and forth as to whether James or William were the more likely brother for James' father.

I went round and round in ever more maddening circles.

The more I looked at the evidence, the more convinced I became that neither James or William could be my James' father. That left Joseph or Samuel. Samuel who had married Elizabeth Wilkin, according to the Bull Book.

I followed that trail for a while, but got nowhere, and more nowhere. Samuel and Elizabeth has seemingly just vanished. Not even a marriage record could be found.

I was getting really tired of banging my head against this brick wall.

Then on perfectly ordinary late December day in 2012 a new post to the OCGSNY yahoo group showed up in my inbox.

 "Hi all, Hope you've had restful holidays, wherever you may be. Over mine, I happened to notice on the FamilySearch website that they've recently added digitized images for over 8 million pages of New York State deeds and land records. (...) While the records are not *electronically* indexed or searchable, they ARE indexed on the actual images."

What the ....What?!?

A quick look proved that, indeed, the land records had been digitized! Not indexed, but digitized. And the original index books were digitized too!!! A late Christmas present had just been delivered to my door! Sure it meant hours of combing through images, but happily it's one of my favorite things to do! (seriously)

Busy with work until mid January, I resigned to return to the records when I had the time necessary to really dig in and look.

That time came in mid March 2013. I had a good week of nothing pressing and decided to sequester myself in the Cave and comb through all the land records. First stop, the digitized index books. I looked for every Faulkner listed, making special note of any James. There were well over two dozen entries for Faulkner and it's variations. I searched Ulster County, Orange County and Sullivan County since all three counties converged at almost the exact location the Faulkner's were said to reside.

Noting the liber and page of each entry, I searched both Grantors and Grantees. This was very exciting! I'd thought I'd have to travel to Goshen or Albany, New York to lay my eyes on such documents, yet here they were ..... in my home!

Coffee in hand and dogs at my feet, I came away with a good list of suspects. Almost two dozen of them! I must confess to getting goose bumps on several occasions as the names I was reading in the deed books were the same names I had become familiar with in the Blue Book. I almost felt like I was coming home. I knew these people - and here they were, being recorded at the actual time they lived! Talk about a genealogist's high!

Now on to the actual land records! The first half dozen or so were duds. Well, in the sense that they were not specifically who I was looking for. (Later, they would actually become useful.)

Then .........

On page 5, volume 66, Orange County Deeds 1839 - 1840 read the following:

(...) Between David Faulkner, James Faulkner and Martha Faulkner wife of the said James, all of the town of Grass Lake, County of Jackson, and State of Michigan, and Robert Faulkner and Sally his wife, of the town of Ontario, County of Wayne, and State of New York, and John M. Faulkner and Catherine his wife, of the town of Benton, County of Tioga, and State of New York, all parties of the first part and David Woodruff of the town of Wallkill, County of Orange, State of New York, party of the second part (...) parcel of land situated, lying and being in the Town of Wallkill, County of Orange, State of New York bounded as follows to wit Northerly by a lot of land formerly owned by John M. Faulkner, Westerly by a lot of land formerly owned by Robert Faulkner, Southerly by lands formerly owned by Col. William Faulkner, Easterly by the patent line of the Elinor Tract, of which this is a part (...)

The document was witnessed by Antoinette Faulkner, James and Martha's daughter.

It was exceptionally hard to read!

After running around the house, screaming like a lunatic, I settled down to allow it all to sink in.

The brick wall had started to crumble.

David! David was James' brother?! The David who lived with James in 1850? Of course! And it appeared he had two more brothers as well! Now we might get somewhere!

Back to my list, there were quite a few John Faulkner's, several Robert Faulkner's, but only one David Faulkner. I decided to look at that next.

Liber O, page 11, Orange County Deeds 1812 - 1814........


THERE.  IT.  WAS.

I sat in quiet disbelief. Tears streaming down my face. Hardly able to breathe.

That loud crash you just heard? The brick wall tumbling to the ground.


This indenture made the fifth day of March in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seven, between Samuel Faulkner of the town of Wallkill, county of Orange, state of New York, Farmer, and Eliner his wife, of the first part, and David Faulkner son of the said Samuel Faulkner and Eliner his wife, of the second (...) if the said David Faulkner should die without lawful issue of his body begotten then the remainder over to Robert Faulkner, James Faulkner and John Faulkner sons of the said Samuel Faulkner and Elinor his wife (...) that certain lot, piece or parcel of land situated, lying and being in the town, county and state aforesaid, and being a part of the farm or lot of land upon which the said Samuel Faulkner now lives which is bounded as follows (to wit) Northerly by a lot of land sold by the said Samuel Faulkner to his son John Faulkner, Westerly by lands sold by the said Samuel Faulkner to his son Robert Faulkner, Southerly by lands of Col. William Faulkner, Easterly by the patent line of said tract of one thousand acres (...) 

much easier to read!

Samuel!!! Samuel!! It was Samuel! My fourth great grandfather now had a name! And his name was Samuel! ...... But who was Eliner (Elinor)? Nickname for Elizabeth? Or a different person altogether. And what about Robert and John M.? Looked like there was now plenty to keep me busy!

to be continued ..........

Samuel Faulkner of Wallkill, New York: A Brief History

Samuel Faulkner of Wallkill, New York: A Brief History

by Anne Faulkner ©2012 all rights reserved

Elgin, IL Winter 2012. Samuel Faulkner was born about 1740 in Wallkill, then Ulster County, New York. Little is known of his life as of this writing. What I have been able to discover I will share with you now. My family lore suggests that he was the second generation in America, his father having emigrated from Scotland to the “Colony of New York” in the early 1700's. Samuel Faulkner, the subject of this article, is most likely the son of William and Mary Faulkner, but no proof has been found to substantiate this at this time. There was a Samuel Faulkner listed in the will of William Faulkner dated 11 Sept. 1783, who was said to have married Elizabeth Wilkin according to the 'History and Genealogy of Wm Bull and Sarah Wells' book . Our Samuel's land was adjacent to Col. Wm Faulkner's land. However I CANNOT PROVE that this is the same man as our subject. There is a good likelihood, yes, but no proof has been found to date. That said, let's move forward to what I DO know.

Military involvement: The earliest record I have found of Samuel is the 1775 listing of New York in the Revolution. It shows Samuel as a private in Col. Clinton's New Windsor Regiment (under the command of Jacob Newkirk); in the Wallkill Second Co (Wm Faulkner Jr Captain). Orange Co leading up to the Revolution was a very exciting place to be, I am sure there is more to learn about Samuel during this time, however I have not pursued his military involvement further as of this writing.

Family life: In the 1790 Census we find Samuel Faulkner with 10 occupants in his household. Eight are children. Four boys and four girls, plus 2 adults, 1 male and 1 female. In 1800 we find him with 9 occupants – 2 older adults, 1 male and 1 female, 4 younger males and 3 younger females. By 1810 it is just Samuel and one older female in the household. Based on the information available from the census records I concluded that the first child, a daughter, was most likely born between 1763 and 1765. And that Samuel was most likely born around 1740, with his wife being born around 1745. I have come to learn that his wife's name was Elinor and the four sons were named David, Robert, James and John M. I suspect the youngest daughter to be Margaret.

Land ownership: Samuel Faulkner, owned a substantial piece of land, about 1000 acres, located in Wallkill, New York. It was situated adjacent to the land of Col. William Faulkner, as mentioned above. The Scotchtown Meeting House stood at one corner of his property. He owned a saw mill, also located on his property.(2)  In the 1803 assessment roll of real and personal estate taxable in the town of Wallkill, Samuel is shown as having $2012.00 worth of land, one of the wealthier land holders on the list. In 1807 I found Samuel and his wife Elinor (or Eliner) selling some of their 1000 acres to their four sons: David, James, Robert and John M. Each boy receives about 130 acres. Then in 1839 all four boys, along with their wives sell off all of the land they hold in Wallkill and effectively leave the area permanently.

Religious life: Samuel was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church O.S., as reported in his son James' obituary. In 1799 I found Samuel as an elder of the Union Church at New Shawangunk.(1)  The church building was known as the Old Union House and was located near Bloomingburg Mills. It had a cemetery at the same location. I have located the grave of a Samuel Faulkner buried at the Bloomingburg Rural Cemetery. He is buried with his wife “Helen”, and Margaret, whom I believe to be his daughter. The cemetery records are very old and there are no headstones. If this is our Samuel (and I strongly suspect it is) he died April 2, 1811, four years after selling half of his land to his sons. Elinor “Helen” died March 17, 1826.

Conclusion: At the death of my father in 2007 I picked up where he left off; trying to learn of his heritage and his Faulkner name. I hit many a dead end in the following years and in winter of 2011 I decided to dedicate the next 12 months to researching the Faulkner name exclusively. That's when the breakthroughs began. I have come a long way, there is still so much more to learn, my father would be so excited at the new information I uncovered. I present this to you now with the hopes that some of the information will ring a bell with you and together we can learn more of this great family name, our family name.

Afterword: I continue my research on this bloodline. If you are interested in collaborating or just want to learn more I can be contacted at ancestorarchaeology@gmail.com.

Sources:

(1)Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) History of Orange County, New York, 1881, Philadelphia: Everts Peck [available on archive.org]
(2)"New York Land Records, 1630-1975," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-32871-9664-40?cc=2078654 : accessed 8 April 2016), Orange > Deeds 1820-1823 vol V-W > image 101 of 522; county courthouses, New York.