Hi everyone!
It's time to get to know another wonderful WikiTreer: Dawn Watson.
Dawn became a Wiki Genealogist in June 2023. She is a Cemeterist and also assists the US Southern Colonies, Appalachia and USBH projects.
When did you get interested in genealogy?
My grandmothers began telling me stories about their families when I was 12 or so. They were a huge part of my life, and I spent a lot of time with them, so their stories intrigued me and I began reading local and state history books to learn more. Then as a senior in high school, my history teacher assigned a cemetery survey as extra credit. I chose Betty's Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, where my maternal grandmother's parents were buried. And from there, I was hooked.
What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?
I'm a genre fiction writer by profession (under pen names). Much of my free time outside work is spent with family or knitting. My grandmothers taught me how to knit!
What is your genealogical research focus?
My focus is and always has been on research in the southeastern Appalachians, but the particular focus has shifted over time. Outside of researching my own lineage, I used to spend a lot of time creating records transcriptions and doing cemetery surveys for the USGenWeb project, and even published a few records transcriptions. Now, I'm dividing my focus between the Valley community in Dillard, Rabun Co., GA (USA) and the Cartoogechaye community in nearby Macon Co., NC (USA). I'm particularly interested in seeing how the various families living in these areas were internally connected, and I'm also interested in the migration patterns for each. Another focus is for ancestors born before the American Revolution and their parents and siblings.
What is your favorite feature or function on WikiTree?
One of the reasons I love WikiTree is its ability to show the exact connections between individuals. This has been a huge help for me when working on my community focused projects, like what I call the Timber Migration (the migration of families from western North Carolina, particularly Cartoogechaye, to the Pacific Northwest as part of the timber industry). Using WikiTree's category, generational ties, and "connection to" features allows me to track patterns among families, and then to source those individuals per accepted genealogical standards using the biographical feature. So, it's not one favorite feature, but the combination of features that I love.
What is your toughest brick wall currently?
I have a few brick walls that always poke at me, especially ancestors who migrated from other countries; those can be tough to trace. My biggest current brick wall is probably Moses Watson. He's usually placed as a son of Adam and Catherine (Hughes) Watson. No one has ever documented that connection, and I'm not convinced by the arguments I've seen to date, especially considering that at one point researchers assigned two children named Moses to Adam. Another Watson researcher is putting together a DNA study that may help cement the genetic connection, but I would like to see documentary evidence and/or well-reasoned proof argument as well.
What do you spend the most time doing on WikiTree?
Currently, I spend the most time on WikiTree creating cemetery categories and connecting profiles to those categories. Categories help me organize and research my community projects as well as finding individuals I may have previously missed.
Which projects are you most involved in?
Outside of the Cemeterist Project, I try to spend a little time each month on the US Southern Colonies Project, the Appalachia Project (which conveniently overlaps with the Cemeterist Project), and the 1776 Project, and also the USBH Project as I have time. The biggest thing I do is to try to track down solid original sources and to write proof arguments, when they're called for, in the biographies of individual profiles to help future researchers. I'm a big believer in categorization, and I also try to make those all-important familial connections so other researchers can more easily find their cousins.
How can others help those projects?
Get involved! Join a project that aligns with your goals or area of research, document individual profiles, categorize them or ask for help categorizing, and have fun!
