The Genealogy of

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Both branches of the family are rooted in Scotland. The Watsons, journeymen, textiles and then medicine, the Gilchrists, tenant farmers in Lanarkshire and Kintyre.

My earliest memory of family trees was at Corran as a child watching my father, Ian, and Murial Geddes pour over sheets on the drawing room floor. In addition to the family history, Ian had a particular fascination as to how diseases passed from one generation to another!

His own journey on the family history had started with a tour of Scotland that he and Malcolm Watson undertook in the 1930s. Jean Watson had recently died and the family were now back in the UK from Malaya. The tour visited numerous churchyards and villages associated with the family and turned up treasures such as the Boyd Family tree dating from 1882.

Carol's interest was inspired by her mother Ellen, who had constructed a family history in the 1930s from conversations in the family and had also found the Family Tree from 1899 written by James Wilson. Carol's interest was primarily in the photographs of which she had a large collection.

My own journey started in the 1980s having inherited all of Ian's documents and notes. My first attempts were laid out on a long roll of wallpaper before being transferred to two large albums. Then in the 1990s I discovered Cumberland Family Tree software and also the LDS Temple in South Kensington with the microfiche records of the old Scottish Parish records. My initial focus was on validating the inherited family trees, before moving on via the census records and Old Parish records to extend the tree.

Now the transfer to TNG software and the opportunity to share the work more widely. There are still piles of photos, certificates and documents to sift through, scan and add to the site, as well as improving the recording of sources. This will follow in the years to come, together with finding some of the elusive missing links and extending the family well back into the 1700s.

Mike Watson Dec 2014

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