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 · Louise Martin Timberman
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationLouise Martin Timberman
- 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 · Louise Martin Timberman
Skip to sources ↧- Born
- 10 April 1917, East Orange / Orange, Essex County, New Jersey
- Died
- 20 January 2008, Deltona, Volusia County, Florida
- Parents
- James Harris Timberman Jr. & Nancy Louise Martin
- Sources
- 10
- Images
- 7
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1917
Born 10 April 1917, East Orange / Orange, Essex County, New Jersey
read off
the printed
Index of Births in New Jersey, 1915–19, Orange: "Timberman,
Louise M. — Apr. 10, 1917 — Vol. 59, p. 95"
S25.
A printed index, not a transcription, and the date is exact.
Schooling1934
🆕 Already at Ward-Belmont School in 1934–35, in the F. F. Club in the 1935
Milestones S395; added 24 September 2026.
Photograph1935
🆕 She is also in the French Club photograph in the same 1935
Milestones, bottom row, eleventh from left
S490. added 25 September 2026.
Death2008
Died
20 January 2008, Deltona, Volusia County, Florida
S26S30Census1919
Raised in Gallatin, Tennessee from the age of two
her father died in January
1919, when she was 21 months old, and by 1930 her mother is enumerated as widowed
S26S27Death—
Interment at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Houston, is stated in her obituary
Probable
but
no FindAGrave memorial exists for her
Not found. All sixteen Coffman
memorials at that cemetery were checked, under both surnames. Her husband is there;
she is not. The grave exists; the memorial has simply never been created
S26S15Why this is certainly the right woman. Her 2008 obituary names her surviving
children as "Ginger Clayton, Nancy Proeger, David Coffman and James Coffman" — an exact
match for the 1950 census household, plus David, who was born after it. It names her late
husband as Robert W. Coffman, married fifty years
S26S10.
⚠️
One disagreement, recorded rather than hidden. Zoomed to 5× on three separate
passes, the bride's surname in the 1939 Sumner County marriage bond reads
"Tuckerman" to this researcher — a
ck where FamilySearch's indexers read
an
mb and transcribed
"Timberman" S28.
Timberman still stands, because it does not rest on that handwriting at all: the
printed New Jersey birth index, the family-supplied obituary, the 1930 census and
the 1915 marriage record in a different clerk's hand all read Timberman
S25S26S27S29.
Four sources, three of them not handwriting-dependent, against one 1939 clerk's cursive.
⚠️ A second conflict, also unresolved: the
1930 census gives her birthplace as
Tennessee, not New Jersey, as it does for everyone in that household
S27. Her mother had been back in Gallatin for a
decade by then and the enumerator most likely wrote the family's state. The 1950 census,
the New Jersey birth index and the obituary all say New Jersey — three to one.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Parents2026
Maiden name: TIMBERMAN. Full maiden name
Louise Martin Timberman. This
was the last blank on the maternal side and it closed on
13 September 2026
S25S26S28 Marriage1939
Married Robert William Coffman on 8 June 1939, Sumner County, Tennessee
bond
dated the 6th, solemnised on the 8th
by the groom's own older brother, James
Burton Coffman, M.G. S28Parents1886
Parents:
James Harris Timberman Jr. (1886–1919) and
Nancy Louise Martin
(1878–1967), married at Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee on 17 June 1915
S29S27Children—
M.A. Library Science,
Peabody College; librarian at
Milby High School,
Houston, then North Shore Junior High; member, Daughters of the American Revolution
S26Photos & documents 0 photos · 7 documents
Documents (7)
Documents · 7 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 pageThe Abilene Morning News (Abilene, Tex.) — page 5
Newspaper · 18 July 1933 ·
page 5 of 8
…ery home in Abilene, and almost every family being represented in the exodus of Abilenians to other points. Parties for the visitors are the only break in the social lull. Two informal affairs held for house guests were an outdoor supper at which Mr. and Mrs. Walter Adams were hosts for Miss Louise Timberman- of Tal. ,------------*********** Temple, where he had visited with a son, who is ill in a hospital there. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Brownlee and son, Thomas. Jr., have returned from Cisco where they spent the week-end. • • • e surely not und among the :roadway. There among certain the "hold-out," device…
Probable because given name matched “Louise” in the page text.
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Original at texashistory.unt.edu ↗
Open full pageThe Abilene Morning News (Abilene, Tex.) — page 4
Newspaper · 28 July 1933 ·
page 4 of 12
…t 1110 Cedar street. The marriage rainbow color theme was favored in of Mrs Douglas and Mr. Reynolds appointments for tables where took place early true month in Ok- bridge and forty two were played, lahoma, and the couple are spend- and in a refreshment plate. ing a few days to Albany before' Miss Timberman, Mary Green, going to the West Coast. Margaret Lee Reese, Elizabeth Mo- Members of the Happy Go Lucky Millan, Louise Dusek and Davida club, in which the bride was a mem- Graham were guests. ber during her residence here, made - up the guest list for the breakfast Guests of Houston Mrs. J. W. Pool p… …the breakfast Gue …
Probable because given name matched “Louise” in the page text.
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Original at texashistory.unt.edu ↗
Open full pageThe Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Tex.) — page 7
Newspaper · 28 July 1933 ·
page 7 of 12
… DDRESS, the STYLE… …n the the one met was accompanist torRena McQuary, Catherine Mc- academy the year the college was Others orexent Mr. malts Query, Rena Ball, Sue Lee, Frona established, 1923. He held mem-u-R A."Randolph, Lizzie Lou Hughes, Bir- + * Y, s EROE A218. toward O wens,. bership there in I. H. R. boys’ so- Coffman, Mrs. Young, and the fol- cial clubiland was Prominent in lowing members, Mrs J. L. Warren, class activities. Mrs. C. B. Oates, Mrs. Emmett p , - ** Boyd, Mrs W. P. Kirk, Mrs J. D. Bridge- Luncheon Woodard, Mrs. Willie Mae Thomp- . Planned For KDS sone, Mrs. Cora Hutton, Mrs. Ross die Wilson, Mary… …ed. —• Members pre …
Probable because given name matched “Louise” in the page text.
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Original at texashistory.unt.edu ↗
Open full page1940 United States Federal Census — Gallatin, Sumner Co., Tenn., ED 83-4A, sh. 8A (Ancestry record 35338371) · **S216** — page sh. 8A
Federal census schedule · 1940
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Open full page1950 United States Federal Census — Gallatin, Tenn., ED 83-10, sh. 4 (Ancestry record 104044430) · **S217** — page sh. 4
Federal census schedule · 1950
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Open full pageThe Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.) — page 7
Newspaper · 17 February 1956 ·
page 7 of 12
…will be hostess to the 9:30 nated at the punch service. Out of town guest* were Mrs. H. PcH*ty HoflOT©© out in red and white. Serving table • l. Stone Jr.. Mrs. J. S. Anderson, appointments were of silver on a Mrs. Gale Senn. Mrs. Albert Kiz- whlte Italian linen lace cloth. An jer a,1(j Mrs. Harry Coffman, all arrangement of tulips centered the from Houston; Mrs. James B. table. Other Valentine decorations Schilling and Mrs. Bryce MeCand- were placed throughout the room. Jess from San Angelo: Miss Ethel Included in the house party were Cobb, Mrs. Louise Young and Mrs. Mr*. Earl R. Gurtler, Mrs. Robe…
Probable because given name matched “Louise” in the page text; no place or role corroboration on the page.
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Original at texashistory.unt.edu ↗
Open full pageThe Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.) — page 17
Newspaper · 18 October 1960 ·
page 17 of 26
…acksonville, Fla : Betty A E l mother 1 . Colo.; Virginia Reynolds, Harlin- Louise Standley Hillsboro: Betty ? - - 1 1 -men . * = 1 Worth; Karen Carlton, Redlands, Virginia Brack, Jasper; Gwen T 1 Calif.: Claudia Chambers. Odessa: Bruce, Tyrone, Okla.: Norma Table appointments were crystal Virginia Coffman, Pasadena: Carden, LaFerea; Ruth Copeland, Ruane Lester displayed gifts Marilyn Colby, Abilene; Glenna Beaumont; Ann Cotton, Shreve Collins, Fort Worth: Sharon port. La Shirley Campbell, Abi- Hostes s suit has a a s Falkner, Fort Worth; Loraine lene; Lyndell Dennis, McAdoo; P R daughter Freeman. Ar…
Probable because given name matched “Louise” in the page text; Pasadena / school-district context; identified by given name only, which this page grades Probable.
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Original at texashistory.unt.edu ↗
Quoted text is the Portal's own OCR of this page, copied verbatim. OCR of 1960s newsprint drops punctuation and mis-reads letters; read the page image before treating any wording as exact.
In the record
Generation 3 — Earl's grandparents
- S101950 US Census, Texas, Harris County, Pasadena, ED 101-78, sheet 16, household 184, enumerated 5 April 1950; NARA schedule id 5913392 — 1950census.archives.gov. Page images held privately.
- S15FindAGrave memorial 36374281, Robert William Coffman (1906–1990), Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Houston — findagrave.com/memorial/36374281.
- S25Index of Births in New Jersey, 1915–19, Orange — entry "Timberman, Louise M., Apr. 10, 1917, Vol. 59, p. 95" (and a second at p. 96). Digitised as New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, Geographic Birth Index, 1901–1929; FamilySearch
ark:/61903/1:1:6NS7-VPBB. A printed index page, read directly from the image rather than from a transcription. The date is exact. - S26Obituary, "Louise Timberman Coffman," Houston Chronicle, published 25 January 2008; Legacy.com id 25719287. Family-supplied. Names her four children, her late husband, fifty years of marriage, her Peabody degree and her DAR membership. The document that both names her and dates her death.
- S271930 US Census, Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee, lines 97–100 — Timberman, Nancy (52, widowed, head, high-school teacher); Timberman, Louise M. (13, daughter); Martin, Emma (59, sister, public-school teacher); Chenault, Ermin (28, female, boarder, saleslady in dry goods). FamilySearch
ark:/61903/1:1:SP7V-TVZ. Page image read directly. The single page that proves the Martin maiden name from a record rather than a tree. Corrected 26 September 2026: the boarder was first read as a man, “Ernest Chernault”, as FamilySearch indexed him. A second scan of the same sheet, Ancestry record 66161418 (1930 census, ED 83-3, sheet 29B, line 100, image 4547930_00097), set beside it reads Chenault, Ermin, sex F, a sales lady in dry goods. The Chenault link to the family is unchanged. - S28Marriage bond, licence and return, Sumner County, Tennessee, p. 492 — Robert Wm Coffman and Louise Martin Timberman; bond 6 June 1939; solemnised 8 June 1939 by James Burton Coffman, M.G.; clerk's office, Gallatin. Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790–1950; FamilySearch
ark:/61903/1:1:QKH3-85GH (bride), …QKH3-85G4 (groom). Page image read directly and zoomed to 5×. ⚠️ On three passes the bride's surname read "Tuckerman" to this researcher where the indexers read "Timberman" — see her card; the disagreement is recorded, not hidden, and the name does not rest on this hand. - S29Marriage record, Sumner County, Tennessee, p. 398 — "Gallatin, Tenn., June 15th 1915. This day issued to J. H. Timberman, Jr. to marry Nancy L. Martin. [A.] H. Moon, Clerk." Return: solemnised 17 June 1915 by H. L. Olmstead. Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790–1959; FamilySearch
ark:/61903/1:1:QKH3-ZG5P / …QKH3-ZG5G. Page image read directly. Corrected 26 September 2026: this page was first read as the 10th and the 11th, with the clerk as “Groves”. A second scan of the same page, Ancestry record 1619878 (Tennessee, U.S., Marriage Records, 1780–2002, image VRMUSATN1780_047344-00268), was set beside the FamilySearch image: both read June 15th and the 17th, the clerk signs “Moon” on every entry, the next licence on the page is dated June 16th, and the marriage bond is dated 15 June S261. FamilySearch's 15 June was right. - S30FamilySearch Tree — Coffman, Timberman and Martin persons: Louise Martin Timberman
LYBS-P4G, Robert William Coffman LDS1-NHV, James Harris Timberman Jr 9W7S-C6X, Nancy Louise Martin KHK5-FCL, Joseph Daniel Martin KG8Y-MV3, Nannie Chenault KZZ7-P9F. Community-curated, not a record — the counterpart of S12 on the maternal side. Event lists and dates drawn from it are tagged Probable throughout. Cited here for Robert William Coffman's sibling list, which independently matches S16. - S395Milestones, Ward-Belmont School yearbook, Nashville, 1935, p. 114. Ancestry record 160975192. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed The F. F. Club, with “Louise Timberman” in the bottom row, second from left. No hometown on the page; she is placed by the school, the year and the name, a year before her senior page (S242).
- S490U.S., School Yearbooks — Milestones, Ward-Belmont School, Nashville, 1935, p. 68: French Club. Ancestry record 205222076. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed The French Club photograph, bottom row: “Louise Timberman”, eleventh from left. The same yearbook has her in the F. F. Club (S395).
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