I often wondered about the relationship between Colonel Stephen Pettis and Amy Pettis. It seemed unusual to me that 2 cousins of the opposite sex would be so profoundly close that they would both marry into the Giles Wing family, that where one re-located, the other one was sure to turn up in the same place. Even after Colonel Pettis lost his wife, Catherine Wing in 1812, it did not seem to affect the relationship between himself and Amy Pettis Wing who was married to Catherine's brother, Joseph.

Despite my skeptism, it never occurred to me to challenge what I had read and come to believe; that Colonel Stephen Pettis was the son of Joseph Pettis and Amy Pettis was the daughter of Stephen Pettis. That is, until Ray Conrad wrote me in 2000 with many of the same questions that I had asked myself. The difference was, Ray Conrad, had the answers to many of those questions and they all refuted what we have come to believe. It just doesn't add up. Somehow, someway, a mistake was made a long, long time ago and the mistake as been perpetuated for far too long.

First and foremost, Joseph Pettis, the brother of Stephen Pettis, married his wife, Mary Chapman on February 17, 1786...Colonel Stephen Pettis, as he would come to be called, was born on July 23, 1777. If indeed, Colonel Stephen Pettis was the son of Joseph Pettis and Mary Chapman, he would have been 9 years old on the day that his parents married.

Secondly, Colonel Stephen Pettis was born in Coventry, Rhode Island where the military census of Rhode Isalnd shows Stephen Pettis living in 1777, while his brother, Joseph Pettis was located in Hopkington, Rhode Island.

There have been other, serious mistakes made in the history of the Pettis family and most particulary, Joseph Pettis. For one, a DAR application that was submitted in 1909. In that application is the first mention of Joseph Pettis as a Revolutionary War veteran in New Hampshire and dying in 1799. Ray Conrad spent the better half of a year trying to verify that account without success. What he did discover was that Joseph Pettis fought in the Rhode Island Militia and died on October 6, 1850 in Norwich, Connecticut.

This is not an attempt to point fingers or to deride the research of other, knowledgeable family members who strived to keep the records straight and to share with other family members what they believed was the truth of the Pettis family tree. It is simply an attempt to explain why it seems highly improbable that Colonel Stephen Pettis was the son of Joseph Pettis.

What originally led Ray Conrad on the thankless journey of repairing a serious genealogy mistake was the obvious birth date problem of Colonel Stephen Pettis. Chances are the William Pettis Bible is the source for much of this confusion. William Pettis recorded the Joseph Pettis marriage but didn't mention the Stephen Pettis marriage. That information might be missing, illegible or simply never recorded. The Curfman genealogy does have what appears to be an accurate record of the Joseph Pettis family in the 'miscellaneous records' section, page 63;"

"JOSEPH PETTIS of Groton, New London Co., Connecticut, b. abt 1749; m. Groton Feb. 1785 MARY CHAPMAN b. Groton 1 July 1753; da. David & Patience (Rouse) Chapman (ASLC). Had PETTIS (born Groton): Joseph, b. 10 Sep. 1786. Mercy, b. abt. 1788, d. 28 Aug. 1801. Lucy, b. 20 Mar. 1793, m (1) 25 June 1812 James Douglas, m. (2) Jonathan Verguson. Anna, b. 10 Mar 1795. Hannah, b. May 1797."
(This was taken from a family group record submitted to the LDS Church, Film 538031)

Now, whoever submitted this obviously did not copy it from Williams bible but has their own sources. The marriage date and Joseph's birth date match and that lends authenticity to the rest. Notice that both Joseph and Stephen named their first born males after themselves, a common practice of the times. To assume the reverse defies logic.

I suspect that the earliest researchers had little more than that bible to go on and assumed that the only listed marriage of the children (Pettis/Chapman) was the one from which they descended.

The original Wing genealogy (the one that lists our branch as "other), names Colonel Stephen Pettis and Amy Pettis as brother and sister. Additionally, the grand trek from Rhode Island to Illinois by way of Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Canada and Ohio finds Colonel Stephen Pettis in company with Stephen Pettis Sr., (deed in New York), mother, Amy Button Pettis (buried in the family plot in Ohio), brother Nathan Pettis (court case in Vermont, land sale in Canada), brother, William Pettis (that family went all the way to Illinois where wife, Mina, was still living in 1850), and of course, sister, Amy Pettis Wing, who was wherever Colonel Stephen Pettis happened to be.

It just doesn't make any sense to think that Colonel Stephen Pettis made this trek with his aunt and cousins and left his own family in Connecticut.

Finally, there is the letter that Amy Pettis Wing wrote her son, Joseph Smith Wing, in 1862. We do know that of all of the children born to Stephen Pettis Sr., and his brother, Joseph Pettis, there is only one that was named Stephen. So, only Stephen Pettis Sr. or Joseph Pettis could have been the father of the only "Colonel," Stephen Pettis. The letter that Amy Pettis Wing writes to her son in 1862 addresses some questions he had about his family heritage. She tells him; " Stephen Pettis and Amy Button's children were Amy, Sally, Stephen, William and Nathan. Joseph Wing married Amy Pettis, you know the rest."