Following the wrong research trail hunting down Watson

Researching the family tree has been challenging over the time I have been looking into it especially with unique names and then the very common surnames that become very tough to trace. Along the way I have learnt lessons about following the wrong family line, but there are times when you do disregard that information, not purposely mind you. I had researched my mother’s family line and the same with some of my father’s line except for the direct patriarchal line. It doesn’t help when the surname is Watson.

When I first started following the family line of Watson, I knew the basics. My grandfather was born in the UK in Durham around 1929. Ancestry at this stage had not transcribed the birth registrations, so I had spent a while hunting through the records. I found two records that I thought would be the correct one, but I was unsure. One night out at dinner with my grandmother, I asked her about what she knew about my grandfather’s line. She told me there were no records and that I would not find anything. I mentioned two dates I had for the records that I had found. In horror her head had snapped around to look at me. She told me which one was correct. I will never forget that exchange as it was quite comical.

Wile studying at university, I had found bits and pieces especially the name of my grandfather’s father and his mother. Really does not help when they both share the same name of James William Watson. The senior Watson was employed as a crane driver for a colliery in Durham. He had been born in Middlesbrough and I had found his parents, but the weird part was James was the only child to be born in Yorkshire where the rest had been born in Northumberland. This information I had received through some of the census years from after the birth of James Senior in 1883.

Fast forward several months later and once, I had finished my university studies, I went back to have another look at the family. At this stage there was something new I could use. The GRO otherwise known as the General Register Office for Birth Death and Marriage certificates in the UK. For births and deaths, they were doing a trial up to certain dates where they will email you a PDF version of the certificate instead of through the post. I had a niggle in the back of my mind telling me I had been tracing the wrong family line even though I had the correct information through a birth certificate and 1939 register. The biggest problem was the name of James William senior’s parents. All I had was George and Mary Ann.

Through a quirk of research I had found George was born in Alnwick in Northumberland and was tracing that family as there was a James William Watson there. Wouldn’t you just assume you had the correct person especially when the wife’s name was Mary Ann too? Wondering if I had the correct information, I ordered three other birth certificates for James William Watson as I thought I was on a seriously wrong track listening to the train coming for me. The certificates were between 1883 and 1884. A bigger problem came when two families had a James William Watson with a father of George and mother of Mary Ann, but different surnames. I found I had been following the wrong family and had luckily not gotten too far as I had been stuck.

No matter how much I wanted the George from Alnwick to be the father as he was a coal miner and James William senior worked in the mines with staithes or just conveyors. I knew the correct information sent me down south into Yorkshire down into the township of Thirsk, where my George was actually a train driver. Funny how there happens to be a Railway museum in York that I want to visit. The surname of Mary Ann was Hindell, the other Mary Ann was Brooks. Luckily, I had not gone further back especially since I would have found more links down the wrong line. At least I now have a Yorkshire link that I had not known about before, oh and then there is the Yorkshire Vet TV show from Thirsk with a vet by the name of James Herriot. I had my dad take a DNA test last year and one of the names linked back was Hindell, so that’s a help. What else can I find out?

I have done well after being told, I would find no records from my grandfather onwards. When people utter those words it always makes me wonder what is there that someone does not want me to find? Now that I have my bachelor’s degree, I now have more time for my family tree research. A very common name can generate loads of results, but I have been careful.