Contents
Whose family are you here for?
Showing both families — every line on the page. Pick a side to hide the other
family's ancestors; Earl, Kristin and their three children stay on either way.
Person · James Harris Timberman Sr.
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationJames Harris Timberman Sr.
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
Person · James Harris Timberman Sr.
Skip to sources ↧- Born
- June 1858
- Buried
- at Mt. Greenwood
Cemetery on 5 June 1919
- Parents
- John H. Timberman & Rebecca Anna Harris
- Married
- Louise Emma Harbauer
- Sources
- 14
- Images
- 8
Life in the order the records give it
Death1886
He is the
father of
James Harris Timberman Jr.,
and the two men are easy to confuse: the son is
1886–1919 and died in
Ohio; this man is
1858–1919 and died in
Pennsylvania. They died
four months apart in the same year. The son's 1919 Ohio death certificate names him
as
"J. H. Timberman Sr", born New Jersey, which is what ties the two records
to each other
S79Birth1858
Born June 1858 Confirmed
and settled across
three independent sources. The tree carried
4 January 1858 and was wrong. His 1919 Pennsylvania death certificate writes
line 6 out
in words —
June / Fourth / 1858 — and its age-at-death
field,
60 yrs 11 mos 30 ds against a death of 3 June 1919, agrees with itself
S93. The
1900 census of
Wilkes-Barre, taken nineteen years earlier
while he was alive, records him as
born
June 1858 and gives
age 41 at the 1 June 1900 census date — right
for the fourth of June, and wrong for the fourth of January
S139. The 1860 census has him
at
2 years old at Salem, New Jersey, which agrees again
S94Work1900
A Veterinary Surgeon Confirmed
and the trade is recorded
twice, nineteen years apart: on the 1900 census as
his occupation at 41
S139, and
again on line 8a of the 1919 death certificate
S93. ⚠️ On
both records
the occupation exists
only in the image — Ancestry's transcription of neither
carries it. It is the clearest thing this line has to show for reading pages at full
resolution instead of trusting an index
Census1884
🆕 In the 1884 Wilkes-Barre directory, aged about 26, he was a
veterinary surgeon with office and home at
96 Public Square, and advertised as “Dr. J. H. Timberman … Member of Penn'a College of Veterinary Surgeons”
S375sixteen years before the 1900 census; added 24 September 2026.
Census1860
The
1860 census puts the whole household at
Salem, Salem County, New
Jersey: John Timberman 34, Rebecca A. 37,
James H. 2, Esther A. 14 and
John H. 7/12
S94. ⚠️ That
places the
family at Salem in 1860; it is not itself a statement of where the
two-year-old was born.
New Jersey is confirmed by the 1900 census's nativity
column and by the son's Ohio certificate;
Salem County is the household's
place, and the stronger of the two claims
Death1870
Louise first appears at seven in
Philadelphia in 1870
S175, and in 1880 at 17 in the house of her widowed mother
Eva Harbauer, 149 Noble Street
S176. A
Jas Timberman, 22, boarded in the next house, 151 Noble Street
his age, and identified by name and age only.
Census1900
In 1900 the directory lists him as a
veterinarian, business and house at
8 E. Union, Wilkes-Barre
S178; by 1910 the family lived at
293 North Main Street, where the census gives his trade as doctor in general practice
S177.
Death1919
He died 3 June 1919 at Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, one day
before his sixty-first birthday, of carcinoma of the prostate of a year's
duration, at 60 South Washington Street. He was buried at Mt. Greenwood
Cemetery on 5 June 1919; the undertaker was W. E. Doran & Sons and the return
was filed on the 4th
certificate 69731, registered 642, district 667
S93Two small things on the certificate are deliberately not turned into facts. The
informant is a W. Timberman of West Virginia — the surname is legible at full
resolution, the given initials are not, and they have not been expanded into a
guess. And Ancestry indexes the entire 1900 household as "Limberman"; the
enumerator's looped capital is a T, so that is a transcription artefact and not a
name variant to be recorded. What is still open above him is his father: John
H. Timberman's own parents are not found, and he is absent from the 1850 New Jersey
census index across 194 Timberman results. The New Jersey Births and Christenings Index
(1660–1931) is the next place to look, and it would also be the only document that could
put a second, independent source behind 4 June.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Parents1858
The day, 4 June, is now settled. The Upper Alloways Creek township return of births, made on 15 July 1858, gives
June 4 1858 at Allowaystown and names his parents
John Timberman & Rebecca, his father a
carpenter S374; added 24 September 2026.
Siblings1864
🆕 His sister
Rebecca Timberman Harbauer (1864–1944) married
Henry C. Harbauer; her death certificate names the same parents, John Timberman and Rebecca Harris
S579. So a Timberman brother and sister both married Harbauers. That Henry C. was Louise Emma's brother is
not yet proven. added 25 September 2026.
Parents1826
His
parents are confirmed by his own death certificate: father
John H. Timberman (b.~1826), mother
Rebecca Anna Harris (b.~1823)
S93
Confirmed. His middle name
Harris is his mother's maiden name, carried forward
and then given to his son
as well, which is why three generations answer to the same three words
Marriage1863
He married Louise Emma Harbauer
on the site's older reading of the dates she
is simply "1863–1934"; the 1900 census fills her in. She was born
June 1863 in
Pennsylvania of two German-born parents, and the same sheet records
three children born, three living
S139Children1870
At twelve, in 1870, he worked in a cotton mill at Gloucester City, New Jersey
S189. By 1914 he practised as
Timberman & Church, veterinary surgeons, rear 15 N Main
S190; his son Albert N. named him next of kin in 1916 at
60 S. Washington St. S200.
Marriage1886
The marriage is dated to about
1886, and the derivation is worth stating
plainly: the 1900 schedule records them as
married 14 years, which counts back
to 1886
S139.
⚠️
No marriage record has been retrieved, and a years-married column is a
round number given to an enumerator, not a register entry. It is corroborated from an
unusual direction
their eldest son was born October 1886 — which brackets the
wedding tightly but also means the census figure and the son's birth are describing
one and the same year with no room to spare
Children1900
The 1900 household is the only place all
three sons appear together:
James
H., Oct 1886, at school at 13;
George W., Feb 1892; and
Albert, Aug
1893 S139. They are at
house 8, dwelling 38, family 44, Ward 5, 2nd Division, enumerated
1 June
1900 by
John Shadrach. Only the eldest has a page of his own here; George
and Albert are recorded and not yet traced
Photos & documents 0 photos · 8 documents
Documents (8)
Documents · 8 page images all documents
Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History,
or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks.
Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text
is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.
Open full page1870 United States Federal Census — Gloucester City, Camden Co., NJ, p. 83 (Ancestry record 27598502) · **S189** — page p. 83
Federal census schedule · 8 July 1870
View full page
Download image
Open full pageWilliams' Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1900, p. 259 (Ancestry coll. 2469, record 156790457, image 2698300) · **S178** — page p. 259
City directory · 1900
View full page
Download image
Open full page1900 U.S. Federal Census — Wilkes-Barre city, Ward 5, 2nd Division, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; SD 6, ED 159, sheet 2 B, house 8, dwelling 38, family 44, enumerated 1 June 1900 by John Shadrach (Ancestry coll. 7602, record 47094515; image 4115129_00218) · full resolution 3933 × 3947 px, DeepZoom level 12, 64/64 tiles — page sheet 2B, lines 71–75
Federal census · 1 June 1900
View full page
Download image
Open full pageUnited States Federal Census, 1910; Wilkes Barre Ward 16, enumeration district 166, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; NARA T624, film 1371; indexed on FamilySearch — page 20A
Census · 1910 ·
page Sheet 20, letter A
Confirmed because the census page puts the whole family in one household nine years before the death certificate was written, and every name and birthplace matches it: head James H Timberman, 51, born New Jersey; wife Louise, 46, born Pennsylvania; son James H Timberman Jr., 23, born Pennsylvania. The Ohio certificate independently names "J. H. Timberman Sr" of N.J. and "Louise Harbauer" of Pa. as the parents of the man who died at Cambridge in 1919.
View full page
Download image
Open full page1910 United States Federal Census — Wilkes-Barre Ward 16, ED 166, sheet 20A (Ancestry coll. 7884, record 120845508, image 4450036_00989) · **S177** — page sheet 20A
Federal census schedule · 3 May 1910
View full page
Download image
Open full pagePolk's Wilkes-Barre City Directory 1914, p. 430 (Ancestry record 190005467) · **S190** — page p. 430
City directory · 1914
View full page
Download image
Open full pageAlbert N. Timberman, son of James Harris Timberman Sr. (Earl's 2nd great-grandfather) — Pennsylvania veterans card, 1916
Military service card · 1916
View full page
Download image
Open full pagePennsylvania certificate of death, file no. 69731 — Luzerne County, Wilkes-Barre, registered no. 642, filed 4 June 1919 (Ancestry coll. 5164, record 870597; image 41381_1521003238_0722-02796) · full resolution 2884 × 2700 px, DeepZoom level 12, 36/36 tiles — page no. 69731
Vital record — death certificate · 3 June 1919
View full page
Download image
In the record
Generation 5 — great-great-grandparents
- S79James Harris Timberman Jr. — Ohio certificate of death, 24 January 1919. State of Ohio, Bureau of Vital Statistics; Guernsey County, registration district 470, primary registration district 8717, registered no. 26, file no. 3039; Ohio, Deaths, 1908–1953, FamilySearch ARK
1:1:X8KB-Z38. Read from the certificate image on 15 September 2026, not from the index. Gives: Jas. H. Timberman, born 23 October 1886, birthplace Pa.; died 24 January 1919 at 9 p.m., city of Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio; occupation inspector, B. & O. R. R.; cause of death influenza, the attending physician certifying four days' attendance; father J. H. Timberman Sr, born N.J.; mother Louise Harbauer, born Pa.; informant Mrs. Jas. H. Timberman, Gallatin, Tenn.; buried Gallatin, Tennessee, 27 January 1919. This is the record that turned the Timberman parents from Probable to Confirmed, and the only source on this page for the cause of his death. Two cautions, both on the face of the document: the stated age of 31 is an arithmetic error — 23 October 1886 to 24 January 1919 is 32 years, and the FamilySearch index copies the mistake forward; and the cause of death is a handwritten word on 1919 microfilm, read here as Influenza on letter count, the four-day course and the date, not transcribed from type. The informant is his widow, so the parents' names are her testimony — corroborated independently by the 1910 Wilkes-Barre census, which is why the tag is Confirmed. - S93PA Death Certificate — James Harris Timberman, d. 3 Jun 1919, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne, PA. Father John H. Timberman, mother Rebecca Anna Harris. Certificate no. 69731, registered no. 642, registration district 667. Ancestry collection 5164, record 870597; image
41381_1521003238_0722-02796, read from the image at full resolution 2884 × 2700 px (DeepZoom pyramid level 12, 36/36 tiles) on 21 September 2026. CONFIRMS James Harris Timberman's parents. His middle name "Harris" = mother's maiden name. The image carries three things Ancestry's transcription does not. (1) Line 6 is written out in longhand words — June / Fourth / 1858 — which settles the birth date against the tree's 4 Jan 1858; line 7's age at death, 60 yrs 11 mos 30 ds against a death of 3 Jun 1919, agrees independently. (2) His occupation, line 8a: Veterinary Surgeon. (3) Residence 60 South Washington St., Wilkes-Barre; cause of death carcinoma of the prostate, duration one year; buried Mt. Greenwood Cemetery, 5 June 1919, undertaker W. E. Doran & Sons; filed 4 June 1919. The informant is a W. Timberman of West Virginia — the surname is legible, the given initials are not confidently legible at this resolution and are not expanded into a guess. - S941860 US Federal Census — John Timberman household, Salem, Salem County, NJ. John Timberman, 34; Rebecca A, 37; James H, 2; Esther A, 14; John H, 7/12. NARA M653, Roll 707, Page 43. Ancestry collection 7667, record 55012827. Places the Timberman family at Salem, NJ in 1860 with James age 2.
- S1391900 U.S. Federal Census — the James H. Timberman household, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Ancestry collection 7602, record 47094515, image
4115129_00218. Supervisor's District 6, Enumeration District 159, Ward 5, 2nd Division, sheet 2 B, house 8, dwelling 38, family 44, enumerated 1 June 1900 by John Shadrach. Read from the image at full resolution — 3933 × 3947 px, 21 September 2026; read-only, nothing accepted, attached or edited. Lines 71–75: James H. Timberman, head, June 1858, age 41, married 14 years, Veterinary Surgeon, born New Jersey of New Jersey parents; Louisa E., wife, June 1863, age 36, 3 children born, 3 living, born Pennsylvania of German parents; James H., son, Oct 1886, At School; George W., son, Feb 1892; Albert, son, Aug 1893. The third independent source for the June 1858 birth. The tree carried 4 January 1858; the 1919 Pennsylvania death certificate [S93] gives June / Fourth / 1858 in longhand, and this census, taken nineteen years earlier while he was alive, gives June 1858 and corroborates itself on the age column — 41 at the 1 June 1900 census date is right for a 4 June birth and would be 42 for a 4 January one. ⚠ The day is not on this page: a 1900 schedule carries month and year and no day, so the fourth is not given here; the 1858 township birth return settles it S374. He is already a Veterinary Surgeon here, nineteen years before the certificate records the same trade — and, as there, the occupation exists only in the image and not in Ancestry's transcription. Ancestry indexes the entire household as "Limberman"; the enumerator's looped capital is a T, and that is a transcription artefact, not a name variant. - S1751870 U.S. Federal Census — the Harbauer children, Philadelphia, 31st District. Ancestry collection 7163, record 5628177, image
4278818_00714; page 96, enumerated 25 June 1870. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. A household continued from page 95: Lewis 25, Maroco finisher; Henrettia 22, dress maker; Annie 20, milliner; Adaline 18; George 15 and Henry 9, at school; Louisa, 7, born Pennsylvania, both parents foreign-born, at school; lodger Jacob North 26, packing-box maker, born Kurhessen. 🔑 The earliest record of Louise Emma Harbauer — age 7 fits the June 1863 birth. The same siblings and Jacob North are with the widow Eva Harbauer in 1880 [S176]. ⚠ The parents are on page 95, which was not fetched. Ancestry's inferred father Lewis is wrong — Lewis, 25, is the eldest brother. No father is published. - S1761880 U.S. Federal Census — Eva Harbauer household, 149 Noble Street, Philadelphia. Ancestry collection 6742, record 225860, image
4244458-00660; SD 1, ED 190, page 11, enumerated 5 June 1880; house 149, dwelling 85, family 109. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Eva Harbauer, 55, widowed, keeping house; Henry 25 and George 19, sons, morocco dressers; Louisa, 17, daughter, single, "In store"; then Jacob North 35, box maker, with his wife Adoline 28 (the Adaline of 1870), Clara 8 and Albert 5. 🔑 Louise's mother is named: Eva Harbauer, a widow by 1880. 🔑 In the next house, 151 Noble Street, boards "Jas Timberman", 22 — the age of James Harris Timberman Sr, born June 1858. Neighbours in 1880, married about 1886 [S139]. The identification is by name and age only and is stated as such. ⚠ The birthplace columns on this page drift against the name rows — Louisa's line carries Bavaria three times, Eva's Pennsylvania/Ireland/Ireland. Ancestry's born Bavaria for Louisa is built on the drift; 1870 and 1910 both say Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania stands. - S1771910 U.S. Federal Census — James H Timberman household, 293 North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Ancestry collection 7884, record 120845508, image
4450036_00989; Ward 16, ED 166, sheet 20A, enumerated 3 May 1910. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. James H, head, 51, born New Jersey, "Doctor, general practice", own account; Louise, wife, 46, born Pennsylvania of German-born parents, three children born, three living; James H Jr 23, clerk at a coal company; George 18; Albert 16; a servant, Helen, 14 or 19, born Bohemia. 🔑 The page writes Louise — not Louisa, and nowhere Larissa. ⚠ "Married 20 years" on both lines puts the marriage near 1890; the 1900 sheet's 14 years and James Jr's age both put it in 1886 [S139]. 1886 stands; the 20 is recorded, not adopted. ⚠ "Doctor" is his own trade as a veterinarian [S178] [S139]; it is not published as a physician. - S178Williams' Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1900, page 259. U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995, Ancestry collection 2469, record 156790457, image
2698300. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. "Timberman Jas. H., veterinarian, 8 E. Union, h do" — business at 8 East Union Street, house the same. 🔑 A second record of the veterinary trade, from his own return, and the family's 1900 address. ⚠ Ancestry indexes the entry as Union Timberman — the street taken for a given name. Louise is not named; directories list the householder. - S1891870 U.S. Federal Census — John Timberman household, Gloucester City, Camden County, New Jersey. Ancestry record 27598502; page 83, enumerated 8 July 1870. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. John Timberman, 40, house carpenter; James H., 12, works in cotton mill; John H., 11, the same; Rebecca, 6; the house kept by Rebecca Osborn, 62. 🔑 James Harris Timberman Sr at twelve, and a sister, Rebecca (c.1864). ⚠ His mother is not in the household; that is recorded, not read as a death.
- S190Polk's Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1914, page 430. Ancestry record 190005467. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Timberman & Church (James H. Timberman and Harry R. Church), veterinary surgeons, rear 15 N Main; James H. jr resides at 340 N Main; Albert N., reporter. 🔑 The practice had a partner by 1914, and the family had left 293 North Main [S177].
- S200Pennsylvania veterans' service card, Mexican Border 1916 — Albert N. Timberman. Ancestry record 60763399. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Albert N. Timberman, 22, born Wilkes-Barre, reporter; Battalion Sergeant Major, 3rd Field Artillery; next of kin "Dr. J. H. Timberman, Father, 60 S. Washington St., Wilkes-Barre". 🔑 A son of James Harris Timberman Sr, named with his father on the same card.
- S374Salem County, New Jersey — Return of Births, Upper Alloways Creek Township, 4 June–17 December 1858, p. 139, line 1. Ancestry record 706930. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed James H. Timberman, male, born June 4 1858 at Allowaystown, son of John Timberman & Rebecca; father a carpenter, residence Allowaystown; recorded 15 July 1858. The first contemporary record of his birth; it settles the day, which had rested on his 1919 death certificate alone. A tree birth of 4 January 1858 is wrong.
- S375Boyd's Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1884, p. 245. Ancestry record 143141099. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed “Timberman James H., veterinary surgeon, 96 Public sq., h do (see adv)”, and his advertisement: “Dr. J. H. Timberman, Veterinary Surgeon. Member of Penn'a College of Veterinary Surgeons. Office, No. 96 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, Penna.” The year is from Ancestry's title for the volume; it is not printed on the page.
- S579Pennsylvania certificate of death no. 9339 — Rebecca Timberman Harbauer, Philadelphia, 23 April 1944. Ancestry record 604549062. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Mrs. Rebecca Timberman Harbauer, born 10 August 1864 in New Jersey, died 23 April 1944 at 4840 Pine Street, Philadelphia; widow of Henry C. Harbauer; father John Timberman, mother Rebecca Harris, both born in New Jersey; informant Louise G. Harbauer, of the same address; burial at Arlington, Merchantville, New Jersey.
Top