Hawkins County Walker Line

There are 16 kits in the Hawkins County YDNA Group testing at 37 or more markers. Most of these kits (9 of 16) trace decent to John Walker (286) who settled in Hawkins Count TN after the Revolution. No direct evidence for his parents have been located, but an apparent kinsman Joshua Walker (6) is known to have been born in Loudoun County Virginia in 1757. Joshua (6) is probably a brother of John (286), but there is no direct evidence to support that point. Assuming that John was indeed born in Loudon County, then we probably have a date of immigration of no later than 1744. The haplotypes for these kits are very similar to each other, with most showing a dissimilarity of less than 2.0%

Two of the kits in the Hawkins County group show origins in Scotland or Ireland.

Kit 263387 traces descent to a David Walker who was born in Dumfriesshire Scotland in 1762, and immigrated to Prince Edward Island, Canada about 1820, dying there in 1844. The haplotype of kit 263387 is somewhat less similar (3-4% dissimilarity) to those of the descendants of John of Hawkins County. Since John Walker of Hawkins County was born well before David's birth, it seems likely that their Patriarchal ancestor lived at least two generations prior to the birth of David, perhaps in the late 17th or early 18th century. It is possible, of course, that this Patriarch lived even earlier than that, but given the relatively slight difference in YDNA dissimilarity a relatively recent common ancestor, perhaps two generations back seems likely.

Kit 19067 traces descent to a Johnston Walker born in Fermagh, Ireland in 1827. The haplotype of his descendant is substantial different from the descendants of either John (286) or David (44). This suggests a Patriarchal ancestor for all three lines deeper than that of John or David. An alternative is that this particular genetic line has mutated very rapidly. Additional kits for this line might allow us to evaluate that possibility.

Two additional kits that match closely with the descendants of John (286), and to a lesser extent with David (44) and Johnston (2), are non surname matches. One kit (Kit N2159) traces to Noah Carr b. 1870 in Lancashire England, and the other (Kit 47494) traces to a John O'more 1588-1648. Both kits match kits tracing descent to John (268) by about 1%, which strongly suggest that they have a common ancestor with descendants of John (268). On the other hand both kits tested at 37 markers. This level of testing, usually produces results in which we can have reasonably confidence. However, in a non surname match it is advisable to increase the number of markers tested to at least 67 to guard against false positive results.

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