Family History

My Family Tree

This is the black walnut tree I grew up under in my back yard. It was already old over 60 years ago when I was a child, and it still stands. No matter how long it lives, it will always be firmly in touch with its roots.

People are not trees. Who and what we are is not determined by our ancestors. Our genes are passed down through generations, but each time they are changed a little bit. And those genes represent only a potential. Each of us must make of them what we can; what we will.

Still, the stories of our ancestors can be fascinating, even if their lives were ordinary. They spent those lives in a time we can never know first-hand. We can only learn from a distance, and travel there only in imagination.

The world has many walls, and many Wallers. If you're one of them we might be related. On the other hand, we might not. The great Wallers of China are not my kin, though I have always respected their handiwork. The Berlin Wallers are also a different family.
In the future, the world should not be divided by walls, but welcomed through open doors, both real and virtual.

Research is underway to discover the relativity of the Wallers. One might call it the theory of Wallertivity.

Seriously, if you think you might be a branch or a leaf...

My Early Years

Back In Time I
Back In Time II

The following is a narrative of my Waller family history, beginning in the 11th century and continuing through 28 generations up to the present.
Under the Walnut Tree

Next is a detailed list of all my known ancestors and past generations, starting with the present and going backward in time. Updated versions will be posted as the research continues. Nearly 600 ancestors' family names have been discovered, some traced as far back as the 9th century, 39 generations ago.
Ancestry of the Waller Family

If you arrived at this page via a name search, that name may be one of nearly 600 family names found in my family tree. Find it in the list that follows: a table of all related family names, by the generation in which each first intersects. It is a useful reference to use while perusing the above Ancestry. You might find it interesting or useful if any of the listed names are in your tree, too.
Table of Names in the Waller family tree

On My Mother's Grave

My boyhood home just outside of Hannibal, Missouri