I look at all the names on this list as well as yours and feel I know them personally and they are probably attached to me somehow. I have looked at all the names and I know I am related to the Ervins and Jones and distant to Armstrong according to Mortons Highland Book. I don't think I can add to your research 40 years is a long time and I am only up to 10-15 years and hardly scratched the surface.
see below if it will help we certainly can compare notes.

I am searching for the parents or descendants of John L. Wilson born about 1819, Lewis County, WV. I have information he could have been a child of Walter Wilson of Lewis County, but the person who furnished it didn’t have a birth date or the middle initial L. or any other valid information. I understand several Wilsons and Armstrongs left Highland county for Lewis County, WV

John apparently left Lewis County, WV. And moved to Highland County, VA. Married Barbara Ervin in 1842 > John William Wilson 1845 who married Jane A. Jones, moved to Pendleton County, WV. > their child and my g-grandfather was John Melton Wilson born 1874.

I have more definite dates but I am concerned about John L. Wilson mostly and his parents.

Any help even information that would help me rule out Walter. For a while I thought it might be Joseph the Rev War pensioner with good reason he had a son about the age of my John, but someone had claim on him and then I had good reason for George another Rev War pensioner, and again that was tossed with another reason I think the family researching him didn’t have a John. Although according to the Scottish naming patterns, the first child of John Melton was Walter Preston and John William had a child named Walter.

So any ideas are appreciative.

Thanks

Pat Killian Pkcb113@bellsouth.net