Contents
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family's ancestors; Earl, Kristin and their three children stay on either way.
Person · Luis Walter (Lewis) Proeger
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationLuis Walter (Lewis) Proeger
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
- Born
- 10 January 1881
- Died
- 27 April 1943
- Parents
- Julius Karl Proeger & Minnie Kochendoerfer
- Married
- May Shepherd Stark
- Sources
- 2
Research status
Research status: CONFIRMED — added 24 September 2026 from a record that names the parents; entered in the family tree the same day.
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1881
Born 10 January 1881, Pittsburgh; died 27 April 1943; buried Allegheny Cemetery
Pennsylvania death index
Record1918
🆕 On his 1918 draft card he was a self-employed
designer and inventor of machinery, living at 6461½ Aurelia Street, Pittsburgh, with his wife
May Stark Proeger S564. added 25 September 2026.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Marriage1883
Married
May Shepherd Stark (14 February 1883 Wellsville, Ohio – 13 December 1940 Pittsburgh), November 1916. In 1930 he managed a laundry and owned his house at Swissvale
S356In the record
Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier
- S3561930 U.S. Federal Census — Lewis W. Proeger household, 1107 La Clair St., Swissvale, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Ancestry record 49140072. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Lewis W. Proeger, 49, laundry manager, owns his house ($18,000), first married at 35; wife May, 49, b. Ohio; children May, 11, and Walter, 9. The first record of his marriage; May's maiden name is not known. The index's “Praeger” is wrong: the image reads Proeger.
- S564U.S. World War I Draft Registration Card — Luis Walter Proeger, 12 September 1918. Ancestry record 25933253. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Born 10 January 1881; designer and inventor of machinery, self-employed; 6461½ Aurelia Street, Pittsburgh; nearest relative his wife, May Stark Proeger.