G. W. Watson

Wes Wicker, Vennie Watson Wicker
Louise Wicker Long 1922

My mother never met her grandfathers:  one died before her father was born and one died when her mother was very young.  John Wicker left behind nieces and nephews who  told us a few stories, but with G.W. Watson we had nothing---no relatives that we knew of.  We only knew that he died from a horse accident (as did John Wicker), he was of Scottish descent, he was buried near Alton (Grandma remembered going to his funeral) and he had only one child who lived to maturity---my grandmother Vennie. We didn't even know when he died but it had to be between 1906-1910.  Oh, we also knew Grandma had Native American, but we didn't know if it was through her mother or her father.

From 1976 until 2018, all of my research only turned up a marriage certificate in Dunklin County, Missouri. September 2, 1894 G. W. Watson married Mattie Silas (sic) in Malden.  Mother thought his name was George. I had my DNA done but the task was complicated because my grandfather's great grandmother was also a Watson.  So, I had to weed out all of the Watson DNA matches in Kentucky and Tennessee.  I finally found a woman whose grandmother had also lived in Southeast Missouri and her name had been Malvina (Vinnie) Watson.  What really caught my eye was her mother's name was Manurva Prince.  My Aunt Billie had once told me that Grandma's name was originally "Minerva Lou".  I had found Grandma in the 1910 census (with a widowed mother) and her name was listed as "Louvinia".  So I had high hopes that I had found G. W.'s parents:  Arthur Watson and Manurva Prince in Dyersberg, Tennessee.

With that information, I was able to find the family in 1860 census in White County Illinois.  His name was George Watson and he was born in 1857.  So far, that is the only census I have been able to find him in.  I haven't found the family in the 1870 census, George would have been 23 in 1880 census and probably living in a boarding house.  The 1890 census was destroyed and I haven't found him in the 1900 census yet.  This was obviously a family that didn't have roots.  Arthur was born in North Carolina, lived in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and Missouri.

No Civil War records, and census records were not found.  The only story we had was he died riding a horse.  Mother told the story often that both of her grandfathers died riding horses "those were the automobile accidents of the day."  She implied that they were probably racing as young men like to do.  I decided to try to find G. W. / George in the newspaper---maybe there was a record of his death somewhere.  So I went to newspaper.com, entered "G.W. Watson" and "horse".  After some research I found a G. W. Watson who was a harness racer between New Orleans and St. Louis.  He raced in Kinloch and Delmar Tracks (both in St. Louis area) in 1903 and in New Orleans in 1909 with a horse named "Kitty".

New Orleans 1909

This was very interesting since I'd known my grandfather had been a jockey, but my grandmother's father has been a jockey, too?  I don't have any real proof that the jockey G. W. Watson was my great grandfather but I do know that I'm 5'1" and my grandparents often went to "the races" in Illinois.  Recently I did the math on G. W.  If he was born in 1857 and died in 1909,  he was 52 years old. If he died racing horses, he was a little old to be drag racing with his friends as mother implied.  But, a man earning a living by racing horses makes more sense.

My DNA and genealogy held more clues to G. W. Watson.  I've known since a child that I had Native American (doesn't everyone) and we naturally assumed it was Cherokee (doesn't everyone).  The first time we had DNA done we had mitochondrial, the maternal line, examined.  We wanted to know what Vennie's mother's line was.  My siblings and I placed bets on what we would find.  My sister thought Romany (gypsy) since Grandma Vennie read tea leaves.  My brother was rooting for Native American because he wanted to claim some casino money (just jokingly).  I, on the other hand, believed there was African.  The DNA results came back. . ..Irish.  We were all a little disappointed since we believed Grandma (who grew up in foster care) had more exotic roots.

The refinements in DNA over the years have given us more information. My brother and I have both had our DNA analyzed---they are a little different but we both have about 98% European.  We are a little different in what the 2% is.  His is more Native American and mine is more African.  The amount of African DNA puts it in Colonial America and Sub-Saharan----slave.

Working on G.W.Watson's genealogy, I came across the name David Solomon Collins, Arthur's great grandfather and G. W.'s great-great grandfather.  My 5th great grandfather was born in 1750.  For some reason, I decided to google him, not really expecting to find anything.  I was wrong.  I should not have been surprised, but he was Melungeon which explains a lot.