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Additional notes and updated information are from The Kin of Rock and Roll and other noted family sources. The Kin of Rock and Roll will add additional DAR information for some ancestors, as it applies, for the purpose of descendants who may want to join this organization.
NOTE: ANY PRESSLEY/PRESLEY FAMILY MEMBERS WISHING TO OFFER THEIR LINEAGE CHART FOR THIS PAGE, OR ALTER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT US. WE WISH THIS TO BE A JOINT PRESLEY EFFORT. IF ANY PRESLEY FAMILY MEMBERS DO NOT WISH THEIR ANCESTRY TO BE INCLUDED ON THIS SITE, PLEASE LET US KNOW. ALL PRESLEY FAMILY MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO SEND US PHOTOS OF YOUR CIVIL WAR ANCESTOR FOR OUR ANCESTOR TRIBUTE.
{THE NC PRESLEY/PRESSLEY/PRESLAR LINE ARE KINFOLK, and are also kin to the Russell County, VA Presleys. }
We wish to be more specific here about Mr. Jones involvement in Presley research. Never have we ever stated that Mr. Jones did a book, or a genealogy about Elvis. This is a total misconception, and as our remarks here have been obviously misconstrued, we would like to clarify that while "according to Presley research sources, Henry Z. Jones began the quest on Presley genealogy," this was due to his genealogical studies on the Palatinate Germans which included information on the Bressler/Preslar line. His work was followed upon and elaborated on by the further research on the Preslar/Presley line researched by Ed Dunn and Donald Presley with their publication of "The Rhineland to Graceland," which draws upon the conclusion that the Presleys of NC, and their descendants, are of German decent and descend further from the Valentine Preslar line which began in the US of A in New York.
Cecil County, MD., St. Stephen Parish, begins the documentation surrounding the descendants of Valentine Preslar through his son, Andreas Preslar and family, and we can follow their journey through VA and on into NC through Andrew's sons: John, Thomas, and Andreas (Andrew), Jr. The forebears of some other Presley family lines are noted as David Pressley from Scotland and William Presley of England. {NOTE: The John Presley of South Carolina who served in the American Revolution is the son of David Pressley of Scotland and not the same John Presley from NC to TN.} These lines are not recently related to the German Bressler/Preslar lines, however, it is documented that some Bresslers from Germany did migrate to the UK for a time, namely in England and Glasgow, Scotland. The goal of the Presley family is to help unravel the mystery of all Presley origins. With many thanks owed to our Pressley/Presley/Preslar family researchers. The goal of The Kin of Rock and Roll is to aid in confirming and validating sources.
SO BEGINS THE STORY...
According to The Bresslers/Presslers of Niederhochstadt, by Elizabeth Bressler Bunting
Offprint from Mennonite Family History, Volume XI, No. 1, January, 1992, two sets of Bresslers came from Germany in 1749 and settled in the Pennsylvania counties of Berks and Lancaster. These would be cousins of Valentine Bressler/Preslar. One Hans Valanten Bressler married an Anna Catharina.
The Bresslers/Presslers of Niederhochstadt
AMENDED INFORMATION: I had last year retrieved this documentation from the Palatinate Subsistence Passenger Lists and neglected to address it here so as to confirm information that was in error placed here. The actual documentation lists the following information: that in June of 1710, not 1709 as some sources depict, approx. 2,400 Germans (Palatinate) arrived in New York and New Jersey from England. On 14 June 1710 arriving on the ship "Fame," Captain Walter Houxton, were the following: Johann Valentin Bressler, 41, Anna Christiana, 36, Anna Elisabetha, 14, Anna Gertrud, 12, Andreas, 6, Antoni, 4, and (son) 1-1/2. Valentine Bressler did not marry Anna Christiana in Suffolk County, New York, nor was she born in Southold, New York. How this information came about, I am not certain. It is obvious by this documentation that Anna Christiana came to New York along with her husband and children. It turns out that descendant Robert Allen is correct with his information below, as herewith confirmed.
Regarding the sons of Valentine and Christina Bressler/Preslar, we find the following information as given by a Preslar descendant, Robert Allen, who defines for us that the two sets of Preslars living in Anson County, NC, are not only the children of Andreas and Antje Wills, but of Hans Jurie Preslar, brother of Andreas. It appears that the descendants of Hans Jurie kept the "Preslar" surname while the descendants of Andreas seem to have shifted over to Pressley and Presley, perhpas to differentiate between the two families.
Allen writes that "... Valentine Preslar, the founder of the family in America, was born in the Palatinate, Germany, 1669 in the village of Hochstadt (where the Preslar family was first mentioned in 1494); Valentine was employed there as a vine dresser; he married Christina Franse and immigrated to New York in 1710; In the early generations of the family the German surnames were often turned into English (in parenthesis); after the mid-1800s many menbers of the family changed their last name to Pressley or Pressly."
John Valentine Bressler/Preslar LineChildren of Valentine and Christina:
Anna Elizabeth Preslar b. 1696
Anna Gertrude Preslar b. 1698
Andreas (Andrew) Preslar b. 1701 (ancestor of Elvis Presley)
Anthony Preslar b. 1705
Maria Agnes Preslar b. 1710
Hans Jurie (John) Preslar 1713-1777
Martinus Preslar b. 1716
Pieter (Peter) Preslar b. 1717
Andrew Preslar (son of Valentine) m. Antje (Ann) Wills of Staten Island, New York, in 1727, moved through New York through PA to Maryland and then to Anson Co. NC.Children born and baptized in St. Stephen's Parish, Cecil County, MD:
Christian Preslar b. 1725
John Valentine Preslar b. 1726
Sarah Preslar b. 1728
Thomas Preslar b. 1730
Andrew Preslar, Jr b. 1732
Hans Jurie (John) Preslar (son of Valentine) m. Mary ____. He settled in Anson Co. NC. where he made his living as a haberdasher and made his will when "very sick," Dec. 16, 1777.
Children:
John Preslar
Anthony Preslar
Elias Preslar
William Preslar
Levi Preslar
Elizabeth Preslar m. ____ Manness
Ann Preslar m. ____ Nunley
Morgan Preslar (fem)
Mary Preslar
Susanna Preslar
Jane Preslar
Regarding the founder of The Kin of Rock and Roll , her direct ancestor, Thomas Presley was the second eldest son of Andrew Presley, Sr. Andrew Presley, Jr. is the line from which Elvis Presley descended. Aside from being descended directly from the Presley line, The Kin of Rock and Roll's family descends down through many intermarriages between Presley and other inter-related lines including the Harrison, King, Edwards, Taylor, Hood, Winchester, Keziah, Crowell and Hargett families who began in NC and settled in SC, AL, TN, and then MS in Itawamba , Lee, and Leake Counties. From NC, members of the families of Thomas and Andrew migrated together down through SC, TN, and MISS, yet always remaining at least one county apart. While the brothers Presley settled in Anson County, NC, in the early 1700's, brother Andrew seems to have had the wanderlust about him. The Presleys were large landowners and during the course of the Revolutionary War it seems they were back and forth between NC and SC at frequent intervals. We know from Revolutionary War information that during the 1700's these areas were subject to Indian attacks, which could explain why some of these families moved around quite a bit.
The Mystery Surrounding Thomas Presley
Thomas Presley's 1st wife was a Culpepper as he married a " ? Culpetter", according to the US and International Marriage Records-1741- 1968. There is no female Culpepper fitted into an acceptable time frame for the wife of Thomas so it is with a guesstimate at this time that the lady Culpepper's was a Culpepper through marriage only. This is still under investigation.
Thomas Presley's second wife was Sarah Lee. There were two Sarah Lee's. First, the wife of Robert Lee, Sarah, was widowed in 1766. A copy of Robert Lee's Will (below) shows his wife as Sarah, and Thomas Presley as one who purchased goods from the estate. It also shows another SARAH LEE, the daughter of Robert and Sarah Lee, who was married to William Crittendon of Anson County, NC. (source: David Duncan for Brooks family history. Naomi Brooks married to John Crittendon, s/o William Crittendon and Sarah Lee.)
Last Will and Testament of Robert Lee of Anson County, NC
Sarah Lee (Crittendon), the daughter, was born ca. 1740's and would have been closest in age to Thomas Presley. However, according to Thomas' Will, which he drew up shortly before his death, he mentions William Crittendon as his "true & trusty friend." William Crittendon is still alive at the time of Thomas' death in 1808. Sarah Lee, the elder, is the most likely candidate for the second wife of Thomas Presley. Thomas and Sarah Lee, aside from each first group of children had four more together; all girls: Rebecca (Pool), Jean Presley, Mary (Thomas), and Nancy (Pool).
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Thomas Presley Line - first generation NC/SC/TN/MS
Thomas Presley died in July of 1808. There lingers some confusion surrounding Sarah Presley (Preslar). A Sarah Lee had been married also to William Crittendon of Anson County, NC. (source: David Duncan for Brooks family history. Naomi Brooks married to John Crittendon, s/o William Crittendon and Sarah Lee.) William Crittendon, b. ca. 1765, was the "true & trusty friend" mentioned by Thomas Presley (Preslar) in his Will. This Sarah Lee was Sarah Lee Culpepper, a daughter of Sarah Lee and Robert Lee Culpepper. This daughter, Sarah Crittendon, is mentioned in Robert Lee Culpepper's Will.
Still more confusion according to Armenia Church records and a photo of a tombstone for a Sarah Preslar buried in Armenia Methodist Church Cemetery, Chester, SC. According to the inscription Sarah was the "consort of Thomas Preslar." Sarah died 9 May 1858 at 71 years of age. That would give her birth year as 1787. Who is this Sarah Preslar?
NOTE: Two of the first settlers and original landowners in Anson County, NC, were John Culpepper and John Lee. Thomas seems to have known both men quite well and had married into their families. Congressman John Culpepper was the grandson-in-law of Sarah Lee through her daughter, Amelia, whose daughter, Mary Yarbrough was his wife, and John Lee was a son of Sarah and Robert Lee.
Thomas Presley, Sr. and first wife Culpepper had the following children:
1. Susanna Presley was born about 1754. She married John "Blackhead" Helms b. 1756 (line of the Kin of Rock and Roll) in 1785 in Anson County, NC. LINEAGE CHART UNDER CONSTRUCTION2. Sarah Presley was born about 1756. She married George Helms, Jr., brother of John Helms.
3. Anna Presley was born about 1774. She married Levi Preslar ca. 1820 in Mecklenburg County, NC..
4. Richard Presley was born 15 March 1760. (married Mary Helms, niece of John Helms) The children of Richard Presley largely married into the Hargett family.
5. Elizabeth Presley was born about 1760.
6. Thomas Presley Jr. was born 25 February 1766. Also a blacksmith. The line of Thomas, Jr. descends down to TN and MS largely through the Barney Harrison Presley line.
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