Isabella Reid Birthplace somewhere in Fife

[MonicaL]

Just been having a look at some of the info regarding Catherine Watson or Kippen. See what you mean about likely connection between her and your Isabella.

I wonder if the connection could start with Thomas Watson (father of Thomas and James) and George Watson (father to Isabella and Catherine)? Could they be brothers? Maybe this is why you are getting hits on your DNA?

Monica

[MonicaL]

Have you seen her death registration? From it, mother's name not known but father is showing as George Watson. Son Joseph reported her death.

I see that on this registration her birth date is given as 7 Sept 1836. I had seen 1838 quoted in other notes.

[Millmoor]

Thanks for your continued interest, Monica. I think I  probably have all the available records for her. As is often the case it is a question of trying to join up all the dots! Her age is one of the question marks I do have . The family group I have for her in 1841 in Wemyss has her age 6. The story that a lot of the American trees have is that father George ( and wife Catherine ) died of cholera in New Orleans. I do have a shipping record  for the ship Olympus( and an LDS manifest) showing that George and daughter Catherine  travelled to New Orleans in 1851- no sign of mother Catherine but there is a mortcloth record in Wemyss in 1849 for the wife of George Watson which could be her. These shipping records do show young Catherine again as slightly older at 16 years of age. ( The route often taken at that time was to travel by ship to New Orleans, then go up the Mississippi before embarking on the wagon trail over the Plains.). It is actually a very interesting search to do!

Your suggestion re Thomas and George Watson being brothers is a hypothesis that I have long considered but again there are insufficient records to "prove" it! After GR2's suggestion of Cults being Isabella's place of birth I decided to look for kirk session records for that parish to discover that none exist!

William