[Including: Browns, MacGregors, and Wilsons]

O sing to me the auld Scotch sangs I' the braid Scottish tongue. The sangs my father loved to hear, The sangs my mither sung, When she sat beside my cradle, Or croon'd me on her knee. And I wadna sleep, she sang sae sweet The auld Scotch sangs to me.

My grandmother on my father's side was a Watson: Ariel Lavern Watson, born February 22, 1900. Her father was James Keillor Watson and his parents "Jack" and Mary were from Scotland.

Before researching the Watsons, I gathered facts my grandmother had given me 30 or so years ago. I knew Jack and Mary had come from Scotland in 1873 and that a child was born enroute. My grandmother gave me the names and birth/death dates of all their children as well as the names of their spouses and children. I also had many Watson pictures from the early 1900s.

I began looking around online and posted the names I had. The first response I had [within one day of posting] was from Debi Burgess. See the story of the MacGregor photos in the June-Sept. 2001 archives. I now had scads of photos--without names!

I then finally got to the St. Thomas, Ontario cemetery, where I met Lesley Cairns and found some facts that allowed me to go generations back in the Watson tree. See the story in the archives. The first discovery was an Alexander Watson, same dates as my Jack, buried with Mary Watson. They were obviously my great-great grandparents and I now had his real name to research. Then Lesley pointed out that their son, John Kelman Watson, may have been named after his mother's side of the family, since the middle name of the son was often the mother's maiden name.

I went home and looked on the LDS site, Familysearch.org, and was thrilled to find Alexander Watson married Mary Kelman in Aberdeen, Scotland. They had several children in Scotland, all of whom matched the children and dates my grandmother had given me. I later found many of them in the 1901 Elgin County census and, again, dates matched, and the country listed as origin fit what my grandmother had told me, since the children born before 1873 were from Scotland, and after that from Ontario.

Isn't genealogy great?

Photos
Mary Watson, about 1921.

This might be Mary. It's a picture from William Robroy MacGregor's collection.

Mary Watson with John and Gertie Watson, and possibly Edith. The children in the photo are probably Jack and Betty Brown and Margaret MacGregor.

Mary Watson on her 70th birthday. The caption reads, "Mother in our backyard, August 21, 1931."

Ariel Lavern and Gordon Earl, about 1904.

Gordon Earl, 1904. [Gordon died later that year.*]

Ariel Lavern, February 1904.

James Keillor Watson with wife Bertha Rushton and children, Ariel Lavern and Horace Holroyd [Holly], circa 1908.

James with his children again, this time in about 1912, after Bertha died.

Ariel Lavern, her brother Holly and cousin Violet Letitia Lodge.

Four generations of Watsons: Mary, her son James Keillor, his daughter [my grandmother] Ariel Lavern and her daughter, Ariel Eileen Billings. Photo taken about 1921.

Agnes Ellen Watson with her husband, Jack Wilson and daughter Belle.

Jack Wilson in Highland regalia.

Edith Watson with Ariel and Holly, shortly after taking them from their father in Detroit to live with their Rushton grandmother in St. Thomas [about 1912-1913].

Horace Holroyd in 1930.

This is either Mary Watson MacGregor or Minerva Watson Brown. This was in the packet of pictures belonging to William Robroy MacGregor. His mother Mary had fallen and may have been bedridden; however, his aunt, Minerva Watson Brown was also bedridden from a stroke.

This may be Mary Watson and her husband Jack MacGregor [from William Robroy MacGregor's photos].

Margaret MacGregor, daughter of Mary and Jack.

Minerva Watson and her husband Harry Brown with daughter Betty in buggy [about 1921].

Marriages
My grandfather William Albert Billings married Ariel Lavern Watson, 1920

Obituaries
Alexander Jack Watson, my great-great grandfather, April, 1908 in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Genealogy Reports
William Watson, patriarch of the Watsons of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Alexander Watson, my great great grandfather who emigrated to Canada.

 

Census Pages