Are Walker families all connected to one another? In reference to George Herbert Walker, grandfather of George H.W. Bush

Question

Hannah Walker Linson is rumored to have died at Ionia County Farm, Ionia County Michigan between 1900 and 1910, after having lived at the home of her son-in-law Emery Guernsey near Lyons, MI, Ionia Twp. Ionia County, MI. Her husband Asa had bought a cemetery plot in Tuttle Cemetery Ionia, Michigan, but it is unknown if any records remain of this sale. Dorothy Guernsey Teall related to me that her older sister was aware of the location of Hannah's burial plot, which I found relatively near that of Oliver and Dorothy Randall.

Comments

All people with the last name Walker are not related.  A "Walker" was a job like "Smith" and "Miller."  Anyone with that job could end up with Walker as a last name.

http://genealogy.about.com/od/surname_meaning/p/walker.htm

"Walker is an occupational surname for a fuller, or one who "walked" on raw, damp cloth in order to thicken it. Derived from the Middle English walkcere, meaning "a fuller of cloth," and the Old English wealcan, "to walk or tread.""

 

fyi: President George Herbert Walker is my 2nd cousin, 2x removed

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Definitely not all Walkers are related. I went in a search for a possible presidential connection with the Bush family. I found one, but it was with the Bollings of colonial Virginia.

Answer 1

One way to tell which branches of a family are related to each other is through a yDNA family name project such as http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/walker. Those are usually used to establish relationships among immigrant ancestors hundreds of years ago, though. In this case you'd be better off finding more recent tree info (i.e. census and birth/marriage/death records) to establish Hannah's ancestry and a possible relationship, the burial plot location is unlikely to give you that information. The Walker family has been in this country since at least the early 1700s (and it's a relatively common name). GHW Bush's earliest American Walker ancestor was Thomas Walker-1946, he appears to have come to NJ just after the Revolution. GHW grandfather's tree: http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Walker-Family-Tree-421.