My Inspiration
Genealogy has always been a part of life in one way or the other. My uncle Ewald Wuschke was a well-known genealogist specializing in Germans who immigrated to Poland with a special interest in the Wondering Volnynians. He published a magazine series by the same name and several family books. He was the one to spark my interest in my family history, but as he had done all the research on my maternal side, I quickly began to focus on my paternal side.
The Beginning
My research into my paternal side started with my biological grandmother. My father had been adopted but had re-established contact with his mother in the 1980s. I began by asking my grandmother questions about her parents, where they were from and what she knew about my grandfather’s family. Unfortunately, she didn’t know much just a few bits and pieces. She remembered both sides of her grandparents’ names. I was able to track them here in Canada, but going back further was harder. The only other piece of information I got from her was the word “Jedburgh” in connection with her mother, Mary Haig Watson.
Paper Trail Gone Wrong
Using Ancestry and ScotlandsPeople, I started tracking my Scottish ancestors. I tracked my Watson line back to Sargent Major James Watson, father of Andrew Watson. Since Andrew was born in Kelso, Roxburghshire in 1813, I looked for James’ birth record there first. I found a James Watson born in Kelso, Roxburghshire on Nov 23, 1794, to Doctor James Watson and Elizabeth Turnbull. Although he would have only been 17 when Andrew was born, I thought this was a match. Well, that and the fact that this James was listed in other people’s trees as being Sargent Major James Watson. I was able to track this line back to Robert Watson and Euphan Scott of the Scotts of Burnfoot. I thought I’d found my family, but once I did my DNA test, I found out that I was very wrong.
DNA Changed Everything
My uncle had always wanted to do one to confirm our ethnicities going further back, but he died before they became freely available. In 2019, I bought myself an Ancestry DNA test as a Christmas present. I believed that my research was sound and there would be no big surprises. I was so wrong!
Two months after sending my sample in, I got my results. The first big surprise was that my father had apparently just done his DNA (we are estranged). This turned out to be a blessing because it helped me sort my matches between paternal and maternal (this is before it did it for you). It wasn’t long before I got surprise number two. The man I had been told was my grandfather (who was married to my grandmother when my father was born) was not biologically related to me. I had ZERO matches to that side of the family, but a bunch of close matches to a different family. After doing a lot of digging and finding a very close match who had also been adopted and sharing our information, I learned that he was my half-uncle. I went on to find he and my father had three other half-siblings on their paternal sides.
That mystery was solved, so I confirmed my uncle’s research into my maternal side (no surprises there). Finally, I started looking at the DNA matches on my paternal grandmother’s side. There weren’t many matches and there were several that were only 6 cMs shared DNA. I contacted a few and by sharing information we confirmed that we were related through Sargent Major James Watson. Unfortunately, Ancestry no longer shows low cMs matches or even shared matches under 20 cMs. This has made it impossible for me to track the family further or find missing branches. I have confirmed that Dr. James Watson and Elizabeth Turnbull ARE NOT the parents of Sargent Major James Watson.
So the question remains, who are Sargent Major James Watson’s parents and where are they from?
If you are interested in helping with the research on my Watson line or want help with your own, visit my message boards.