Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia

Authors

Jimmy Wales was born 7 Aug 1966 as his marriage license in Monroe County, Florida states, or 8 Aug 1966 as is stated in some entries in the Public Records Index.  He was born in Huntsville, Alabama where his father, also Jimmy, worked as a grocery store manager, while his mother Doris and grandmother Erma ran the House of Learning, a small private elementary school.  His parents Jimmy D Wales and Doris A Dudley married in Madison County, Alabama Dec 1963 ("Jimmy D Wales to Doris A Dudley", Vol 68 Cert 33798).

"When my mother went back to school to become a pharmacist, we all moved down to Auburn."

Jimmy (junior) first attended Auburn University from where he got his B.A. Probably at this time ("when he was 20") he married his first wife Pam, who also worked at the grocery store.  Probably the same one where his father was manager.  In 1993 Jimmy is listed in both Tuscaloosa (on 3rd Avenue) and Anniston, Alabama (on Timuquana Lane) with a birthdate of 8 Aug 1966 (U.S. Public Records Index Vol I), and in 1994 in Huntsville (Tombrook Place).  In 1996 there is a "Jimmy Wales" living at Tarpon Springs, Florida.  And in Vol II, in an undated entry "Jimmy D Wales" with this same birthdate is living in St Petersburg.

Also on Timuquana Lane in 1993 I find a "Doris Ann Wales", no birthdate listed.

Volume II does not show me any good "Pam" or "Pamela" Wales, living at any of these locations.  But Vol I tells me that a Pamela G Wales (born in 1967) was living in 1989 on 3rd Avenue in Tuscaloosa.  I don't find a Pamela or Pam listed with Jimmy in the available phone book entries which appear to be him.

He and Pam divorced sometime before March 1997 which is the month when he married his second wife Christine Rohan in Monroe County, Florida.  Jimmy states that they married there because they had been renting a house in that place at the time.  With his second wife Christine, they are likely to be the "Jimmy and Christine Wales" who appear in the 1998 and 1999 Chicago phone book (Logan Blvd) and the "Jimmy and Christine Wales" who appear in 2000-2002 in the San Diego phone book (Oliver Ave).

The Jimmy D Wales who died in 2007 in Alabama (SSDI "Jimmy D Wales 1934-2007") is evidently not the one who was the father of Jimmy (b 1966), as he is not listed in the older man's obituary, and the wife given there ("for 53 years") is not named Doris.  In the 2010 Huntsville phone book there is a Jimmy and Doris living on Tombrook Place, which must be his parents.  Curiously also living in Huntsville is a Pamela Wales, but I thought Jimmy's ex-wife was supposed to have been remarried?  You wouldn't think there would be two Pamela Wales in such a small place.

Radaris tells me that there is some kind of connection between this Pamela and some people named Damron.  And then Reunion.com tells me that this Pamela G is a Damron herself.  So it must be that this is her new married name.  Finally, throwing this information back into the mix I find a Pamela G Wales, and a Pamela M Damron both living at the same address in Huntsville in 1993, with the same 1967 birthdate.