Updated 20 February 2015

Use the menu bar to the side of the project page to navigate to any page of the project website.  To post to the forum ("Activity Feed"), make sure you are signed in as a member.  But you will not be able to invite members to join in - any new member must first join the project.  (mtDNA;  Y-DNA;  atDNA makes no difference).

Updated 2 November 2014

Use the menu bar (including the drop-down menus) across the top of the project page to navigate to any page of the project website.

DNA testing is the the best "add-on" tool available to genealogists!  The many advantages include:-

• Surname tests (Y-DNA) enable genealogists to verify their father's father's...father's paternal ancestry.  (The molecular (aka genetic) ancestry overrides the surname ancestry).
  
• Molecular ancestry information can be very powerful when combined with traditional paper trails and can uncover family secrets!

For WAT, WATTS, WATSON DNA (other spellings are also acceptable) queries, contact  Gail Riddell  RiddellDNA@gmail.com

Like all surname projects, this one is intent upon proving connections using DNA.  It is a global project and is not restricted to just one country.

But I am needing to recruit persons versed in particular lines of WATSON families - there are many, many more separate families than I ever dreamed might exist.

The project needs its members to provide names of their most distant common ancestor for genealogical researchers interested in the WATSONs and their associated families.  Please do this on your FTDNA Home Page.

Some of the best articles I have found to date for understanding just what 'DNA' is and how the results of testing can help you with your genealogy.

http://dna-explained.com/2012/08/19/autosomal-results-the-basics/

But there are also numerous blogs available if you are a newcomer.  Please contact me with your requests.

(I am Gail and you will locate me at this email address   Riddelldna@gmail.com  )

http://stevemorse.org/genetealogy/dna.htm

http://stevemorse.org/genetealogy/beyond.htm

Here is a hint for you if you have tested FF.

Once you (or anyone) joins a project, you can go to your FTDNA Home Page and hover your mouse over the FF Drop-down menu visible in the blue tool bar. Then select  "Advanced Matches" from that menu. Check FF and select whether you want to see your matches in either the full data base, or just in the specific projects that you have joined.

Because it is a pain switching from one window to another, I have three browsers, so that I can get the same person’s Home page up showing different reports for the same tester all at the same time.

If you are reading this, then it is assumed you are hunting for details about your ancestors and extending your knowledge about your particular line.

DNA testing will certainly aid you in a number of ways whether you have a paper trail or not - but if you eventually wish to put a name to your ancestor, then someone (whether you or your match) will need to have such a paper trail.

If you have researched your own paper trail, do research it thoroughly FOR YOURSELF rather than merely rely on someone else's work.

 
Please upload your gedcom to your FTDNA  home page and check that you have stated your most distant known ancestors.

Finally, give a thought to all the women who have no males able to test.  
They are therefore forced to rely on 'Family Finder'.  
And if you are male, you will be "missing out" on finding the surviving members of your family if you ignore testing your atDNA via Family Finder.  
So too will those females be missing out.

Gail Riddell

Riddelldna@gmail.com

Taken from the website given below the article.  (There are many websites dedicated to this name.  All you have to do is 'Google" the phrase "Watson Surname").

Watson

This is a famous Anglo-Scottish surname of great antiquity. Very popular in the north of England and the Border Country, it is one of the patronymic forms of the pre 7th century popular male personal name Watt, itself a development of the Anglo-Saxon personal name and later surname, Walter. This has the interesting translation of 'powerful warrior'. It is also claimed that the name was introduced into the British Isles by the Norman-French invaders after the Conquest of England in 1066, in the forms of Waltier and Wautier. Certainly in the medieval period of history the name generated a number of different spellings amongst them the short forms of Wat, Watt and Walt, and from these the patronymics Watts, Wattis, and the popular Watson. The surname in any form is first recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Devonshire in England in 1176 as Peganus Wat. In Scotland the earliest recording that we ccan find is that of as John Watson, who held lands in Edinburgh in 1392. Examples of later recordings taken from the early surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London include: the christening of Anne Watson on April 18th 1556, at St. Margaret's, Westminster; and the christening of Assabell Watson on May 16th 1561, at the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. One of the earliest emigrants to the Virginia Colony in New England was John Watson. He left London on the ship "Speedwell" on May 15th 1635, although his later history is now lost. The first recorded spelling of the family name is probably that of Richard Watson. This was dated 1324, in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, in Yorkshire, and during the reign of King Edward 11nd of England, 1307 - 1327. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop," often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.