Sentimental Sunday: Uncle Jim - Found a Century Later
Ah, the wonders of modern DNA testing! With it can be found long-lost kin and surprises along the way. DNA has been key in several discoveries in some of my family lines in recent months. A recent DNA cousin find even led to solving a mystery on a mutual collateral ancestor for which no DNA testing was involved.
After taking a DNA test and enthusiastically adding to her online family tree, my niece connected me to a cousin (one generation removed) who lives out west. His father (who was actually my first cousin) died when he was young and the family drifted apart. Though I had asked kin for more details years ago, I was never able to keep up-to-date with that branch. Now I know his birthday (we were born in the same year) and that of his brother's as well as the names and birth dates of his children. His eldest son is among those of the tenth generation of the Watts family with roots in Halifax County, Virginia and shares a namesake that goes back about eight generations within the wider family tree.
We spent some time talking on the phone and reminisced about my grandparents' (C.B. and Amy) home in Kentucky. We realized we had been there at the same time at least once, during the celebration of C.B. and Amy's 60th wedding anniversary. We shared the same sandbox. Oh and the memories flooded in from there! I was so nostalgic and longing for a place that now only exists in my head.
Synchronistically, it is the 30th anniversary of my grandmother's death this month. The whole conversation with my niece and DNA started out with her posting photos she had discovered of my grandmother online. So perhaps with a nudge here and there, Granny has been reaching out to us in some way. Her death was the catalyst for my launch into family history in the first place. It was during the gathering for her funeral that someone pulled out a family bible and some old letters and I was hooked from there.
While talking with my cousin I looked up our branch in my Watts book, noting the kin we had in common back to George Richard Watts. I mentioned the one mystery I had with Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim was my grandfather's uncle; a son of George Richard Watts and his wife Emily J. Chaffin. Their family bible record indicates that James T. Watts was born February 24, 1866. The only other thing that my grandfather could tell me was that Uncle Jim had a hot temper and was killed by a man in self-defense in Missouri. This I also learned thirty years ago as I began my family tree quest by asking Granddaddy for the names and information about everyone he knew.
Thirty years ago we did genealogy the old-fashioned way. It was not until 1991 that the world wide web even became publicly available. Nowadays...well, you know what's it's like now. Back when I first gathered the information on Uncle Jim, though, there was no internet to turn to for quick answers. So what my grandfather told me about him was the only information I could provide in my book.
I am detail-oriented and like to gather complete data on everyone if I can, seeking to fill in the blanks like a crossword puzzle. I knew Uncle Jim's birth date but exactly when did he die? After getting off the phone with my cousin, I decided to jump online to familysearch.org to see if I could discover more about Uncle Jim.
I started with determining if I could find him first in Kentucky which is where the family settled after leaving Virginia when Jim was around the age of 13. I found him enumerated in Christian County, Kentucky with his parents and siblings in 1880. During the 1910 census, he was still there but living with Rufus B. Hill. Rufus was a brother of James Walter Hill who married Uncle Jim's sister, Mary Elizabeth (called Molly Bet). Jim did not show up in the area during the 1920 census (nor the 1900 census, but I am not sure why). Next I looked for him in the state of Missouri between the years 1900 and 1920.
I found him. Familysearch directed me to a FindAGrave entry for James Thomas Watts buried in Campbell, Dunklin County, Missouri. Dunklin County is in the southernmost part of Missouri. The birth date on his tombstone matches our James T. and Thomas was actually the name of his grandfather. The grave entry says he was born in Kentucky. (Although we know that he came from Kentucky, he was actually born in Halifax County, Virginia.) Campbell is a little less than 175 miles west from where he lived in Kentucky. The time period fits from what we know of when James T. left there. My grandfather was just 19 when he would have heard about Uncle Jim's demise which happened in August 1919, just about 100 years from when I found my answer.
After taking a DNA test and enthusiastically adding to her online family tree, my niece connected me to a cousin (one generation removed) who lives out west. His father (who was actually my first cousin) died when he was young and the family drifted apart. Though I had asked kin for more details years ago, I was never able to keep up-to-date with that branch. Now I know his birthday (we were born in the same year) and that of his brother's as well as the names and birth dates of his children. His eldest son is among those of the tenth generation of the Watts family with roots in Halifax County, Virginia and shares a namesake that goes back about eight generations within the wider family tree.
We spent some time talking on the phone and reminisced about my grandparents' (C.B. and Amy) home in Kentucky. We realized we had been there at the same time at least once, during the celebration of C.B. and Amy's 60th wedding anniversary. We shared the same sandbox. Oh and the memories flooded in from there! I was so nostalgic and longing for a place that now only exists in my head.
 |
| C.B. and Amy (Hardy) Watts on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary in 1978 |
Synchronistically, it is the 30th anniversary of my grandmother's death this month. The whole conversation with my niece and DNA started out with her posting photos she had discovered of my grandmother online. So perhaps with a nudge here and there, Granny has been reaching out to us in some way. Her death was the catalyst for my launch into family history in the first place. It was during the gathering for her funeral that someone pulled out a family bible and some old letters and I was hooked from there.
While talking with my cousin I looked up our branch in my Watts book, noting the kin we had in common back to George Richard Watts. I mentioned the one mystery I had with Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim was my grandfather's uncle; a son of George Richard Watts and his wife Emily J. Chaffin. Their family bible record indicates that James T. Watts was born February 24, 1866. The only other thing that my grandfather could tell me was that Uncle Jim had a hot temper and was killed by a man in self-defense in Missouri. This I also learned thirty years ago as I began my family tree quest by asking Granddaddy for the names and information about everyone he knew.
Thirty years ago we did genealogy the old-fashioned way. It was not until 1991 that the world wide web even became publicly available. Nowadays...well, you know what's it's like now. Back when I first gathered the information on Uncle Jim, though, there was no internet to turn to for quick answers. So what my grandfather told me about him was the only information I could provide in my book.
I am detail-oriented and like to gather complete data on everyone if I can, seeking to fill in the blanks like a crossword puzzle. I knew Uncle Jim's birth date but exactly when did he die? After getting off the phone with my cousin, I decided to jump online to familysearch.org to see if I could discover more about Uncle Jim.
I started with determining if I could find him first in Kentucky which is where the family settled after leaving Virginia when Jim was around the age of 13. I found him enumerated in Christian County, Kentucky with his parents and siblings in 1880. During the 1910 census, he was still there but living with Rufus B. Hill. Rufus was a brother of James Walter Hill who married Uncle Jim's sister, Mary Elizabeth (called Molly Bet). Jim did not show up in the area during the 1920 census (nor the 1900 census, but I am not sure why). Next I looked for him in the state of Missouri between the years 1900 and 1920.
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| Rufus B. Hill and Norman Ellis Watts Norman Ellis was a nephew of James Thomas Watts |
I found him. Familysearch directed me to a FindAGrave entry for James Thomas Watts buried in Campbell, Dunklin County, Missouri. Dunklin County is in the southernmost part of Missouri. The birth date on his tombstone matches our James T. and Thomas was actually the name of his grandfather. The grave entry says he was born in Kentucky. (Although we know that he came from Kentucky, he was actually born in Halifax County, Virginia.) Campbell is a little less than 175 miles west from where he lived in Kentucky. The time period fits from what we know of when James T. left there. My grandfather was just 19 when he would have heard about Uncle Jim's demise which happened in August 1919, just about 100 years from when I found my answer.
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| Tombstone of James Thomas Watts 24 February 1866 - 4 August 1919 Four Mile Cemetery, Campbell, Dunklin County, Missouri |
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