The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Author: David Adriance Foster
Witbeck was born in 1755 in the part of Albany County, NY east of the Hudson that is now Rensselaer County. He was of Danish descent with ancestors coming to New Amsterdam about 1650. William married Catherine DeFreest in Albany in 1779. They are both buried in Blooming Grove Cemetery in Rensselaer County.
He was a Private in Col. Killian Van Rensselaer’s 4th Regiment of the Albany County Militia. The 4th Regiment was in the second Battle of Saratoga on October 7, 1777 according to Luzader’s Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution, although Witbeck’s specific participation is not documented.
The National Archives show he was paid on January 14, 1785.
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