Walter's mother married William H Payne in 1865, when Walter was more than four years of age. He was given his step-father's surname and raised in the household to which ultimately were born eight Payne half-siblings. His mother died in 1879 from complications of the birth of his youngest half-brother, who also died. His step-father remarried within three months' time - a necessity, with a house filled with young children. He chose a widow with nine children of her own; together, they added one more son, in 1880.

Walter departed the household of his step-father shortly after the death of his mother, and is not found there in 1880.

Walter Payne married Ella Ann Thayer, per their family Bible, in April of 1886. They continued to reside in Indian Lake and the following year, at the age of fourteen, Ella Payne gave birth to the first of their fourteen children.

Education was important to Walter and Ella and their children, for the most part, attended school for as long as they were able; most graduated high school. It was not until after the first World War that Walter and Ella left Indian Lake, removing to Groton, in Thompkins county, by 1925. Walter died at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY, in 1933; Ella died in 1944.

For his mother's relationship with Edward Z. C. Judson, see Sarah Jane Brook's memorial for further details.

Suffice to say that Sarah's marriage to EZC Buntline in 1860, while real to the naïve fifteen year old Sarah, would not have stood a legal challenge, as he already had more than one living wife. (But a witness's recollection of it was published in newsprint in 1872, and local knowledge of her son's paternity is also recorded in a letter written... by a neighbor of her mother's family... to an area historian.)

But the resemblance between son and father should lay any challenge to rest, and modern science ... in the form of DNA... also confirms it, as Walter's descendants are very close DNA matches to living EZC Judson descendants.