Investigating the Walter Family

A friend recently loaned me a copy of a family tree of her mother-in-law's family – the Walter Family. I wanted to see if I could verify the information in it and add anything else to the stories that it represents. As I built back the family tree using ancestry.com, most things lined up, but there were three areas that needed further examination

The Tree

The tree I was loaned was a single piece of rolled-up paper that was in the form on a descendant tree. It was developed and drawn in 1975. The person at the head of the tree was Jacob Walter (1729-1803). There was a crude drawing of the Walter family crest and information about how he came to America in 1749 and made his way to Centre County, PA. The branch of interest to my friend goes as follows:

1. Jacob Walter (1729-1803), m. Maria Kauffman, only 2 children listed, only one with descendants

2. Jacob Walter (1762-1817), m. __ Lauver, only 2 children listed, only one with descendants

3. Jacob Walter (1798-1873), 2 wives, 17 children listed, but only two with descendants

4. Abraham Walter (9/1/1829-1893), m. Mary Ann Shively, 13 children

5. Elmer Abraham Walter (3/8/1872-1925), m. Sarah Newberry, 3 children

6. Harold G Walter (10/1/1910-), m. Catherine Weiser, 4 children

7. Mary E Walter (1929-) [still living]

The right-hand side of the paper is covered with hand-written additions representing the 45 years since the page was originally drawn.

Tracing Back Even Further

The paper genealogy chart starts on the left with Jacob Walter (1729-1803). But it notes that this is a very old patronymic. Can we trace it back farther? The answer is yes. [Note that I did not do this research myself, but relied on what other had already posted in various family trees.] Here is the continuation of the Walter name before Jacob (1729).

Johann Jakob Walther (1702-1734)

Hans Walther (1680-1754)

Hans Jacob Wather (1653-1742)

Hans Jacob Walther (1625-1693)

Hans Jorg Walther (1590-1635)

Hans Walther (1560-1645)

Christoph Walther (1534-1603)

Christoph Walther (1512-1592)

Hans Jorg Walther (1491-1526)

That's 9 more generations, taking the family tree back to the year before the voyage of Christopher Columbus! And all in what is now Germany. Truly a rich family history!

The Tale of the Three Jacobs

The first few generations (1-3 above) have a dearth of information, then there is suddenly an explosion in the 4^th generation. Because colonial families tended to be very large, there appears to be much missing. Since the investigation of this family took place in 1975, long before the Internet and online genealogical tools, I thought that I could fill in the missing information. But in the process I also discovered some errors in the chart.

According to the best sources, Jacob (1729) and his wife had 19 children between the years 1754 and 1780. One of these was the Jacob of generation 2 above, except that he appears to have been born in 1757, not 1762. But this Jacob did not marry someone with the last name of Lauver. He married Maria Bobb and they had 11 children. Moreover, none of their children had the given name of Jacob (the purported name of Abraham's father).

However, there was a line from Jacob (1729) to Abraham. One of the other of Jacob's sons was David Walter (1761-1838). David married Susanna Barbara Eberhart and they had 12 children, one of whom was Philip Walter (1790-1855). And one of Philip's children was listed as Abraham (1827-1893).

To be fair, there are a handful of trees in ancestry.com that show a Jacob as being the father of Abraham. But these trees do not list a father for Jacob, nor do they have any supporting evidence. And this is all complicated by the fact that the name Jacob/John was often used as almost a prefix with families having multiple sons with that first name – for example, David had sons named John Jacob, John David, John George, John Adam, and John Conrad. Other families often used the name Mary in a similar fashion with female children. So while I cannot be 100% certain that the family tree is Jacob-David-Philip-Abraham or Jacob-Jacob-Jacob-Abraham.

The VERY Young Couple and a scandal?

The final thing that I saw worthy of investigation was the heritage of the last person in the original chart, Mary Elizabeth Walter. Her parents were listed as Harold G Walter (b. 10/1/1910) and Catherine Weiser. But Mary Elizabeth was purportedly born in 1929 when Harold was not yet 20. And my research showed that Catherine was even younger! Also, the family trees I ran across all had Mary Elizabeth's mother as Mary Catherine Neugebauer. What was correct?

By looking at census records and obituaries, I was able to determine what was going on – and confirm that this had been worthy of investigation.

Here is the obituary for Harold. You can see that he was indeed born on 10/1/1910 to Elmer and Sarah Newberry. His wife is also listed as Mary Catherine Weiser. His four children are also properly listed with information that matches the family tree I had been provided. So nothing seems strange here.

[Obituary – Harold Walter]

But now let's look at the obituary for Mary Catherine several years later. She was born on 11/10/1912, married Harold on 9/22/1928, and has the same list of children. But her parents are listed as William and Mary Ellen (Woleslagle) Neugebauer! Further investigation into the 1910 and 1920 census showed that her mother was [Mary] Eleanor Woleslagle who was living as a 16-year-old servant in 1910, and that William and [Mary] Eleanor Neugebauer were living together with then 7-year-old Mary Catherine in 1920. So [Mary] Eleanor was only 18 when Mary Catherine was born. But that's still older than the age of Mary Catherine when her first child was born.

[Obituary – Mary Catherine Walter]

So, we now have another error in the hand-written chart – Mary E Walter's mother's maiden name was NOT Weiser, but was Neugebauer, the erroneous obituary of her father not withstanding!

Now let's look at the 1930 census when Harold and Mary Catherine were married and had their first child, Mary E Walter, who would be not yet two year's old.

[1930 Census – Harold]

[1930 Census – Mary Catherine]

As you can see, Harold is 19, living with his mother, Sara [Newberry], age 48, and her new husband, Wilson Engleman, age 77. Sara and Wilson have only been married a few years as Harold's biological father passed away in 1925. Also living with them is Harold's grandmother Elizabeth (listed by a nickname Lydia). Interestingly, Wilson's new mother-in-law is six years younger than he is! But note that Harold is listed as Single! That is clearly wrong as we know he married nearly two years before. [It's quite possible that Sara intentionally gave the wrong information to the census taker to help cover up the scandal.] But where is Harold's wife and daughter?

We find Mary Catherine living with her parents, William and Eleanor. She is listed as “[Mrs.] Harold Walters” (note that she is a daughter and female) and her child, Mary Elizabeth is age 1 and 1/12. As this census was taken in April 1930, that means that Mary Elizabeth was born in March 1929. Mary Catherine is properly listed as married.

So, what it going on here? Apparently Harold had gotten Mary Catherine pregnant around June of 1928 (9 months before the birth of Mary Elizabeth). He was 17 at the time (his 18^th birthday would have been in October of that year), and Mary Catherine was only 14 (her 15^th birthday would have been in November of that year). When they discovered that she was pregnant, their parents forced them to get married in September of 1928, but they were not allowed to begin living together – being much too young. Thus, in April of 1930 when this census was taken, Mary Catherine and her 13-month-old baby were living with her parents in Tyrone, PA, and Harold was living with his mother and step-father in Milton, PA – about 95 miles away!

Not a very auspicious start for this young couple! But we know that they must have reunited by the end of 1930 as Mary Catherine became pregnant around December of 1930 and their next child was born in September of 1931. Oh, the tangled web we weave!