Dear Family,

This past month I began the challenging task of sorting through the Archives that Rodney Walker collected over the past 50 years, much of which was contributed by individuals like you. One of the fascinating discoveries that I wanted to share with you is a book published in 1861 by J.B.R. Walker that includes Genealogical and Biological Sketches of another Walker family dating back to 1620.

The connection to our own Walker family line is unknown, would originate in England, and is yet unproven. But the story of this Walker branch is remarkably similar to that of Robert and Sarah (Leager) Walker. Brave souls who for reasons we can only speculate took the risk of coming to America at a time of great peril.

The author details the genealogy of one “Widow Walker” of Rehoboth, Mass whose name appears in the list of those who in 1643 “gave in the value of her estates, for a pro rata division of lands”. And then sets forth the genealogy of this very prominent family of Walker’s. It is the equivalent of the Big Red Book written 100 years earlier and for another branch of Walker's.

(Inscription: The Temple work for the names in this Book who were eligible has been performed by William Holmes Walker, Lucy Walker Kimball Smith and Jane Walker Smith in the Logan and Salt Lake Temples assisted by Mary Walker Harker, and Olive Far Walker)

The author also suggests that this line of Walker's was in fact the first in the new world and goes so far as to crown this yet unnamed "Widow Walker of Rehoboth, Mass, "The Mother of Us All". While this is  possible, it is more likely, that our line of Walker's, even Robert Walker and Sarah Leager Walker, who arrived in 1630 in the John Winthrop fleet were in fact the first Walker's in the new world.

Perhaps someday, we might discover a connection between these two very prominent Walker Families. One who probably came from the the Manchester, Lancashire County of England and the Other that hailed from near Hingham, Norwich, England in 1633.

By my calculations that puts our Walker’s in the New World three years earlier!

Thanks for you ongoing support,

David Walker