FHB Watson Predecessors - Revision history

Kat: /* Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA */

2026-02-18T15:33:21Z

Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA

Kat: /* Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA */

2026-02-18T15:32:59Z

Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA

Kat: /* Debunked */

2026-02-18T15:26:42Z

Debunked

Kat: /* Debunked */

2026-02-18T15:25:00Z

Debunked

Kat: /* Documented */

2026-02-18T15:20:20Z

Documented

Kat: /* Possible Ancestors of Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605) */

2026-02-18T15:10:16Z

Possible Ancestors of Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)

Kat: /* Possible Ancestors of Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605) */

2026-02-18T15:09:28Z

Possible Ancestors of Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)

Kat: /* Latest Speculation */

2026-02-18T15:07:30Z

Latest Speculation

Kat: /* Documented */

2026-02-18T15:07:04Z

Documented

Kat: /* Documented */

2026-02-18T15:06:04Z

Documented

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 ===Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA===
-: J Brooks Watson has had a Y-DNA test. His haplogroup is I-M253 (recently updated by FamilyTreeDNA as subclade I-F2642, which is found in only 1%-2% of European men), which is described in an article from [http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf the Journal of Genetic Genealogy]:
+: J Brooks Watson has had a Y-DNA test. His haplogroup is I-M253 (''recently updated by FamilyTreeDNA as subclade I-F2642, which is found in only 1%-2% of European men''), which is described in an article from [http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf the Journal of Genetic Genealogy]:
 <blockquote>

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 ===Deep Ancestry Based on Y-DNA===
-: J Brooks Watson has had a Y-DNA test. His haplogroup is I-M253, which is described in an article from [http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf the Journal of Genetic Genealogy]:
+: J Brooks Watson has had a Y-DNA test. His haplogroup is I-M253 (recently updated by FamilyTreeDNA as subclade I-F2642, which is found in only 1%-2% of European men), which is described in an article from [http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf the Journal of Genetic Genealogy]:
 <blockquote>

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 <blockquote>
-**No credible historical evidence exists for a "Sir John Mulvaney Watson, Baron of Rockingham" (or any variant) living around 1590–1605—or at any other time.**
+''No credible historical evidence exists for a '''Sir John Mulvaney Watson, Baron of Rockingham''' (or any variant) living around 1590–1605—or at any other time.''
 That name and title pop up exclusively in user-submitted genealogy trees on sites like Ancestry.com and YourRoots.com. These are often unreliable (think AI-hallucinated "Sirs" with suspiciously Scottish-Irish mashup surnames like "Mulvaney Watson" attached to English nobility). One Ancestry entry even claims he was "1st Baron Rockingham" born ~1575 and died 1606, father of a James Mulvaney Watson—yet another red flag, as real peerage creations don't work like that.
-The **actual** Barons of Rockingham start much later, and with a different Watson branch:
+The ''actual'' Barons of Rockingham start much later, and with a different Watson branch:
 </blockquote>

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ====Debunked====
-* Earliest Watson Ancestor: [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605]], born on Orkney, Scotland
+* Earliest Watson Ancestor: '''Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605''', born on Orkney, Scotland
-* Second Early Watson: [[James Mulvaney Watson (1590-1650)]] of Dundee, Angus, Scotland
+* Second Early Watson: '''James Mulvaney Watson (1590-1650)''' of Dundee, Angus, Scotland
 : These supposed "ancestors" have recently been removed from my tree, after not finding any documentation of them whatsoever. Also, a discussion with Grok about them confirmed my suspicions that they are probably ficticious.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 * Charles M. Watson (1838–1889) and His "Mysterious" Father
-- **Birth and Early Records**: Charles was born ~March 1838 in Georgia (per later censuses and grave markers), not Alabama as some trees claim. He died Feb. 11, 1889, in Calhoun County, AL, and is buried there—consistent with your dates. His marriage to Mary Ann "Polly" Patterson in 1858 (Calhoun Co.) and their kids (like James Franklin, b. 1860) show up in 1860–1880 censuses, where he's a farmer.
+- **Birth and Early Records**: Charles was born ~March 1838 in Georgia (per later censuses and grave markers), not Alabama as some trees claim. He died Feb. 11, 1889, in Calhoun County, AL, and is buried there—consistent with your dates. ''His marriage to Mary Ann "Polly" Patterson in 1858 (Calhoun Co.) and their kids (like James Franklin, b. 1860) show up in 1860–1880 censuses, where he's a farmer.'' [N.B. I don't know where this came from -- I've never heard of Mary Ann Patterson. Charles M Watson was married to [[FHB Martha Ann Smith|Martha Ann "Mattie" Smith]].]
 - **Link to Lucinda**: The 1850 census in Carroll County, GA, lists a "Charles Odom" (age 12) in the household of Odell Odom (farmer, b. ~1805 SC) and Lucinda M. Odom (age 39, b. ~1811 GA). By 1860, in Calhoun Co., AL, Charles (now "C.M. Watson," age 23, laborer) is back with just Lucinda M. Odom (age 49)—no Odell, suggesting he might've died or split. Later censuses (1870–1880) revert Charles to "Watson," confirming the 1850 name was likely a clerical assumption he took his stepdad's surname temporarily. Lucinda's maiden name appears as "Holman" or "Monk Holman" in descendant trees, possibly from a prior marriage to a Monk (unverified, but fits if she had kids before David).
 - **DNA Tie-In**: Your stronger matches to David's descendants (vs. his siblings) align with this—David's line is the "missing link" in Alabama's patchy records (pre-1850 courthouses burned, wars disrupted archiving). FamilySearch indexes show Watson clusters in Calhoun/Blount Co., AL, where David's kin settled post-1830s migration from GA/SC.

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 As of now (April 2025), I believe David Lewis Watson, Jr. (1774-1840) was married three times, with his last wife being Lucinda Holman (1811-1880), Charles M Watson's mother. The two older brothers of Charles, Richard and Elias, were most likely children of David's second marriage, to Isabelle Hughes (1772-1832).  With his first wife, Elizabeth Sarah Newton (1770-1818), David had eleven children, including that John Aaron Watson (b. 1808) who had been proposed as a possible father for our Charles M Watson. While it's still possible that John Aaron was Charles' father, I think it unlikely since according to a US Census, Lucinda had Richard and Elias in her household along with Charles before she remarried to Odell Odom following her first husband (Mr. Watson) had died. They were both too old to be her children, but if she was their step-mother having them live with her after their father died made sense.
-==Possible Ancestors of [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)]]==
+==Possible Ancestors of Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)==
-Some sources claim that [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1606)]] was the son of David Watson, son of John T. Watson (1520-1584), Bishop of Winchester, born in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, son of Thomas Watson and Elizabeth Weekes. I have not included this lineage since I have not seen convincing evidence of this relationship. However, the same sources also claim that Bishop Watson's ancestry goes back to another Mulvaney Watson in Scotland, so I'm not ruling it out entirely. More research is needed.
+Some sources claim that Mulvaney Watson (1575-1606) was the son of David Watson, son of John T. Watson (1520-1584), Bishop of Winchester, born in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, son of Thomas Watson and Elizabeth Weekes. I have not included this lineage since I have not seen convincing evidence of this relationship. However, the same sources also claim that Bishop Watson's ancestry goes back to another Mulvaney Watson in Scotland, so I'm not ruling it out entirely. More research is needed.
 The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography's [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28844 entry for Bishop John Watson] states that he was unmarried, and his will does not mention any children, although he did leave bequests to children of his various siblings. So I do not believe he is our ancestor. Also, it doesn't make sense to me that Bishop Watson, who lived in the south of England, would have a son born in the far north of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands. Not that it's impossible, but I think it unlikely.

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 ==Possible Ancestors of [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)]]==
-: Some sources claim that [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1606)]] was the son of David Watson, son of John T. Watson (1520-1584), Bishop of Winchester, born in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, son of Thomas Watson and Elizabeth Weekes. I have not included this lineage since I have not seen convincing evidence of this relationship. However, the same sources also claim that Bishop Watson's ancestry goes back to another Mulvaney Watson in Scotland, so I'm not ruling it out entirely. More research is needed.
+Some sources claim that [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1606)]] was the son of David Watson, son of John T. Watson (1520-1584), Bishop of Winchester, born in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, son of Thomas Watson and Elizabeth Weekes. I have not included this lineage since I have not seen convincing evidence of this relationship. However, the same sources also claim that Bishop Watson's ancestry goes back to another Mulvaney Watson in Scotland, so I'm not ruling it out entirely. More research is needed.
-: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography's [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28844 entry for Bishop John Watson] states that he was unmarried, and his will does not mention any children, although he did leave bequests to children of his various siblings. So I do not believe he is our ancestor. Also, it doesn't make sense to me that Bishop Watson, who lived in the south of England, would have a son born in the far north of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands. Not that it's impossible, but I think it unlikely.
+The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography's [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28844 entry for Bishop John Watson] states that he was unmarried, and his will does not mention any children, although he did leave bequests to children of his various siblings. So I do not believe he is our ancestor. Also, it doesn't make sense to me that Bishop Watson, who lived in the south of England, would have a son born in the far north of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands. Not that it's impossible, but I think it unlikely.
 ==Ancestors of Charles M Watson==

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 ===Latest Speculation===
-: As of now (April 2025), I believe David Lewis Watson, Jr. (1774-1840) was married three times, with his last wife being Lucinda Holman (1811-1880), Charles M Watson's mother. The two older brothers of Charles, Richard and Elias, were most likely children of David's second marriage, to Isabelle Hughes (1772-1832).  With his first wife, Elizabeth Sarah Newton (1770-1818), David had eleven children, including that John Aaron Watson (b. 1808) who had been proposed as a possible father for our Charles M Watson. While it's still possible that John Aaron was Charles' father, I think it unlikely since according to a US Census, Lucinda had Richard and Elias in her household along with Charles before she remarried to Odell Odom following her first husband (Mr. Watson) had died. They were both too old to be her children, but if she was their step-mother having them live with her after their father died made sense.
+As of now (April 2025), I believe David Lewis Watson, Jr. (1774-1840) was married three times, with his last wife being Lucinda Holman (1811-1880), Charles M Watson's mother. The two older brothers of Charles, Richard and Elias, were most likely children of David's second marriage, to Isabelle Hughes (1772-1832).  With his first wife, Elizabeth Sarah Newton (1770-1818), David had eleven children, including that John Aaron Watson (b. 1808) who had been proposed as a possible father for our Charles M Watson. While it's still possible that John Aaron was Charles' father, I think it unlikely since according to a US Census, Lucinda had Richard and Elias in her household along with Charles before she remarried to Odell Odom following her first husband (Mr. Watson) had died. They were both too old to be her children, but if she was their step-mother having them live with her after their father died made sense.
 ==Possible Ancestors of [[Mulvaney Watson (1575-1605)]]==

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 Based on your details, I dug into census records, probate docs, and cross-referenced family trees from sites like WikiTree and FamilySearch (which often pull from original archives). While Ancestry's ThruLines is a solid DNA hint, the paper trail does support your deduction on David Watson Jr. as Charles M. Watson's father, with Lucinda as his (likely third) wife. Here's the breakdown with independent refs:
-### Charles M. Watson (1838–1889) and His "Mysterious" Father
+* Charles M. Watson (1838–1889) and His "Mysterious" Father
 - **Birth and Early Records**: Charles was born ~March 1838 in Georgia (per later censuses and grave markers), not Alabama as some trees claim. He died Feb. 11, 1889, in Calhoun County, AL, and is buried there—consistent with your dates. His marriage to Mary Ann "Polly" Patterson in 1858 (Calhoun Co.) and their kids (like James Franklin, b. 1860) show up in 1860–1880 censuses, where he's a farmer.
 - **Link to Lucinda**: The 1850 census in Carroll County, GA, lists a "Charles Odom" (age 12) in the household of Odell Odom (farmer, b. ~1805 SC) and Lucinda M. Odom (age 39, b. ~1811 GA). By 1860, in Calhoun Co., AL, Charles (now "C.M. Watson," age 23, laborer) is back with just Lucinda M. Odom (age 49)—no Odell, suggesting he might've died or split. Later censuses (1870–1880) revert Charles to "Watson," confirming the 1850 name was likely a clerical assumption he took his stepdad's surname temporarily. Lucinda's maiden name appears as "Holman" or "Monk Holman" in descendant trees, possibly from a prior marriage to a Monk (unverified, but fits if she had kids before David).
 - **DNA Tie-In**: Your stronger matches to David's descendants (vs. his siblings) align with this—David's line is the "missing link" in Alabama's patchy records (pre-1850 courthouses burned, wars disrupted archiving). FamilySearch indexes show Watson clusters in Calhoun/Blount Co., AL, where David's kin settled post-1830s migration from GA/SC.
-### David Watson Jr. (~1790–~1838?) and Lucinda as Wife #3
+* David Watson Jr. (~1790–~1838?) and Lucinda as Wife #3
 - **David's Profile**: Born ~1790–1800 (est. from kids' ages), likely in SC or GA, son of David Watson Sr. (Rev. War vet? Some trees speculate, but unproven). He migrated to Alabama ~1820s, farming in Blount/Calhoun areas. Death date conflicts: Some say 1837–1838 (around Charles's birth, explaining his absence in 1840 census); others push to 1840s, but no will/probate survives—Alabama's spotty records strike again. He's not in the 1840 census, but Lucinda (as head of household in Carroll Co., GA) has two males 10–19 (fits Richard & Elias) and one under 5 (Charles?).
 - **Multiple Wives**: Evidence points to at least three: First (unknown) bore earlier kids like James Franklin (~1820s); second, Isabelle Hughes (~1805–1830s), mother of Richard W. (~1828) and Elias S. (~1830, married Elizabeth Day 1851 in Carroll Co., GA). Lucinda (~1811–aft.1860) as third, wedding ~1837 (inferred from Charles's birth). She's too young (under 30 in 1840) to be bio mom to Richard/Elias (teens then), so stepmom checks out. By 1840, she's widowed or solo, remarrying Odell Odom ~1840s.

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
-: Pending further information, the possible ancestor, [[David Watson (1774-1840)|David Lewis Watson, Jr. (1774-1840)]], or whomever was the father of [[FHB Charles M Watson|Charles M Watson]], would be the sixth (or seventh?) early Watson. Contrary to other researchers, I now do not believe Charles' father was John Aaron Watson, whose census records show an entirely different family. Overwhelming DNA evidence, however, convinces me that we are descended from John A's father, [[David Lewis Watson (1727-1811)|David Lewis Watson]], and David is his only known son who is said by some to have died at the expected time. The DNA evidence will be explained in detail on [[Recent Watson DNA Discoveries|another page]].
+Pending further information, the possible ancestor, [[David Watson (1774-1840)|David Lewis Watson, Jr. (1774-1840)]], or whomever was the father of [[FHB Charles M Watson|Charles M Watson]], would be the sixth (or seventh?) early Watson. Contrary to other researchers, I now do not believe Charles' father was John Aaron Watson, whose census records show an entirely different family. Overwhelming DNA evidence, however, convinces me that we are descended from John A's father, [[David Lewis Watson (1727-1811)|David Lewis Watson]], and David is his only known son who is said by some to have died at the expected time. The DNA evidence will be explained in detail on [[Recent Watson DNA Discoveries|another page]].
-: There may be a missing generation between [[David Lewis Watson (1727-1811)]] and [[David Watson (1774-1840)]], but until more documentation shows up, I'll treat them as father and son rather than grandfather and grandson. [[David Watson (1774-1840)]] has the least supporting documentation since immigration, but we're working on it! Meanwhile, Grok agrees with me about the probability of David W (1774-~1840) as Charles M's father:
+There may be a missing generation between [[David Lewis Watson (1727-1811)]] and [[David Watson (1774-1840)]], but until more documentation shows up, I'll treat them as father and son rather than grandfather and grandson. [[David Watson (1774-1840)]] has the least supporting documentation since immigration, but we're working on it! Meanwhile, Grok agrees with me about the probability of David W (1774-~1840) as Charles M's father:
-<quote>
+<blockquote>
 Based on your details, I dug into census records, probate docs, and cross-referenced family trees from sites like WikiTree and FamilySearch (which often pull from original archives). While Ancestry's ThruLines is a solid DNA hint, the paper trail does support your deduction on David Watson Jr. as Charles M. Watson's father, with Lucinda as his (likely third) wife. Here's the breakdown with independent refs:
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 - **Multiple Wives**: Evidence points to at least three: First (unknown) bore earlier kids like James Franklin (~1820s); second, Isabelle Hughes (~1805–1830s), mother of Richard W. (~1828) and Elias S. (~1830, married Elizabeth Day 1851 in Carroll Co., GA). Lucinda (~1811–aft.1860) as third, wedding ~1837 (inferred from Charles's birth). She's too young (under 30 in 1840) to be bio mom to Richard/Elias (teens then), so stepmom checks out. By 1840, she's widowed or solo, remarrying Odell Odom ~1840s.
 - **Richard and Elias**: Richard W. Watson (~1828 GA–aft.1880 AL) farmed in Calhoun Co.; Elias S. (~1830 GA–aft.1880 GA/AL) was a miller, enlisted CSA 1862 (10th AL Inf.). Both appear in 1850–1880 censuses as Watson half-brothers to Charles. No direct proof they're Lucinda's stepsons, but household timelines and DNA patterns (as you noted) support it.
-</quote>
+</blockquote>
 ===Latest Speculation===