Contents
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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 · William Olan Walker
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationWilliam Olan Walker
- 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.
- Born
- 8 April 1915
- Died
- 18 February 2002
- Parents
- Daniel Jonah Walker & Nettie Ellen Cleveland
- Children
- Thomas William Walker
- Sources
- 7
Research status
Research status: CONFIRMED — added 24 September 2026 from a record that names the parents; entered in the family tree the same day.
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1915
Born
8 April 1915, Lolita, Jackson County, Texas; Olan, 15, the eldest, in the 1930 household
S209S87Death2002
Died 18 February 2002; his Social Security record names both parents
Military1940
🆕 His 1940 draft card: of Edna, Jackson County, born 8 April 1915 at Lolita; his wife was
Mrs. Erma Lee Walker S539. added 25 September 2026.
Census1940
🆕 In the 1940 census he was an auto-repair mechanic in Edna, 24, with his wife
Erma Lee, 19, a cafe waitress whose mother was born in Germany
S567. added 25 September 2026.
Census1950
🆕 In 1950 he was an electrician at
Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico, 35, with Erma Lee, 29, and two young children; the family had been in Jackson County, Texas, in 1949
S585. added 25 September 2026.
Census1951
🆕 The 1951 Hobbs directory lists him with Erma L. at
508 West Lea, a groundman for New Mexico Electric Service
S745. added 26 September 2026.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Children1947
🆕 His son
Thomas William Walker was born in Jackson County, Texas, on 11 September 1947. The birth index gives the mother's maiden name as
Irma Lee Norcross, which is Erma Lee's maiden name
S705. added 26 September 2026.
In the record
Generation 3 — Kristin's grandparents and their siblings
- S871930 United States federal census — Precinct 2, Jackson County, Texas: the Walker household. Read 16 September 2026. Enumerates Daniel Jonah Walker and Nettie Ellen "Annie" Walker with their children Mary, Olan, Clarence Melvin and Robert J — the household Kristin's grandfather was born into at Lolita in 1920. This is what took the Walker great-grandparents past two bare index names. Before it, the couple existed only in the parent fields of their son's Social Security NUMIDENT record, which spells her "Nettie Clevland" and gives no dates, no places and no children. The census writes Cleveland and supplies the household. Their own parents are still Not found; the tree's "Desa Hodges, b. 1888" for Nettie's mother would make the mother eight years old and is rejected, not corrected.
- S2091930 U.S. Federal Census — D. Jonah Walker household, J.P. 2, Jackson County, Texas. Ancestry record 62694189; ED 120-5, sheet 4B. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. D. Jonah Walker, 40, first married at 22; Nettie, 33, first married at 15, born Nebraska; Olan 15, Robert J. 12, Melvin 9 and Mary 7. 🔑 The ages at first marriage put the marriage at about 1911–12.
- S539U.S., WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1940: William Olan Walker. Ancestry record 19752150. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed William Olan Walker, 25, of Edna, Jackson County, Texas; born 8 April 1915 at Lolita; contact his wife Mrs. Erma Lee Walker; employer Jess Farquhar. Signed “Olan Walker”.
- S5671940 U.S. census — Edna, Jackson County, Texas, ED 120-8, sheet 9A. Ancestry record 156567307. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Olen Walker, 24, mechanic at an auto-repair shop, living at Lolita in 1935; his wife Erma Lee, 19, a cafe waitress, first married at 18, whose mother was born in Germany.
- S5851950 U.S. census — Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico, ED 13-27, sheet 76. Ancestry record 9594006. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed William O. Walker, 35, electrician; his wife Erma Lee, 29, whose mother was born in Germany; two young children. The family had been in Jackson County, Texas, in 1949.
- S705Texas birth index, 1947, p. 3412. Ancestry record 154588830. Image examined, read 26 September 2026. Confirmed Thomas William Walker, born 11 September 1947, Jackson County; mother's maiden name Irma Lee Norcross.
- S745Hobbs, New Mexico, city directory, 1951, p. 159. Ancestry record 901735150. Image examined, read 26 September 2026. Confirmed “Walker Wm O (Erma L) groundmn NM Elec Serv r 508 W Lea”.