Hi Barb, Beej, Tom, Jim and Cousins, I don't know about the Rev. J. J. Watts. He might be a more distant relative, not in my direct line, but most of the Watts were very religiously inclined. I know there were some Watts ministers who went into the Carolinas from our branch. Some were in Iredell County NC whom I believe were part of ours, and some in SC as well. Charles Brunk Heinemann investigated these families in "Watts Families of the Southern States," and included ours as Family 12, but never linked them to the main body of his research. The Watts, like almost all of my families were in the heart of the backcountry. I believe they may have started in Virginia, but may have mirrored those other backcountry travellers who went up the Chesapeake Bay into the Philadelphia Perimeter and then returned to Virginia in the Potomac area, and then on down into SW Virginia. Heinemann included in our research, a letter written by the Rev. Henry Newton Watts, who was a brother of my gg-grandfather Alfred L. Watts (have never found what the "L." stood for) which gave details of the family but they were vague about the beginnings. I think they may have been in Orange County, Virginia where a John Watts is on the Orange County Tithe Lists taken by Anthony Strother, whom I believe is a part of my elusive backcountry Smith family, which in turn is connected to the Watts family while they were in Missouri and then out here in Oregon. Another interesting almost-connection is with the half-Cherokee Chief John Watts who led a party of Creeks and Shawnees against the settlers of Buchanan Station near presentday Nashville, TN. Legends of John Watts are all around, but I first found the account in "Tennessee Bible Records," which had the story along with information on the Buchanan family. You can find references to Chief John Watts in Pat Alderman's fine regional work "The Over the Mountain Men," and in Ramsay's "Annals of Tennessee." One online site is http://www.nativenashville.com/History/buchanan.htm There is circumstantial evidence of Chief John Watts's connection, or at least a Cherokee connection to our Watts family through the Ross family in Wayne County, KY who married one of my Alfred's sisters there. Chief John Ross was the principal chief of the Cherokee tribe for many years, and was Chief during the time of the removals. Several members of this branch of our family settled in Greene and Webster counties, MO after leaving Kentucky/Tennessee, and then I believe some of them also came to Oregon, as my family did. Rev. Henry Newton remained in Missouri and some of his descendants went to Texas, and I am happy to say, I have made reconnection with two cousins Watts and through my Watts connected Enos line. Another long time fellow searcher is doubly related through my Enos-Stanley/Standley line, who was very instrumental in our early research through her Van Winkle ancestor who married into our Watts family. The Van Winkles have been well researched in a huge genealogy by Daniel Van Winkle, and their ancestry is also very representative of the backcountry as portrayed through Dutch integration into the society. They also present a good opportunity for the influence of patronymics on family surnames, for their original name was Wallingen, then Walling. They became known as Van Winkle because they came from Winkle in the Netherlands. (I've also wondered if the Walling further deteriorated into Waller, because there are many Virginia backcountry connections with that surname as well.) You can find more on Van Winkles, Dutch patronymics, at the Olive Tree. http://olivetreegenealogy.com/index.shtml Van Winkle-Watts kinship has endured over a couple of hundred years and their alliance was what first gave form to my theories about the effects of a frontier subculture on the genealogy and history of America. The Watts, Markhams and Smiths are in SW Virginia on some of those excellent tax and census lists at the New River Valley Historical Notes. I have found a "Finwinkel" on one list which I can't place right now, and James Van Winkle is next to Micajah Pinition on the 1790 Wilkes County Census at NRVHN. Another of our cousins has an Abraham VanWinkle Coffey ancestor whom I believe fits in here somewhere. http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/1790wilk.htm There is a Rd. (Richard) Watts along with a John Watts and so many allied, kinship and family names from both my maternal and paternal lines on that 1790 Wilkes County census, it is a mystery to me how somebody would ever sort out the significance of the DNA. And yes, some of the James Family. I am going to have to do an analysis of all of those names for the website. It is really amazing. Now Tom, I'm interested in whether the Bigelow person then was the "Mr. Howard," according to the song, shot by "the dirty little coward?" Howard was supposed to have been the alias Jesse James used when he was killed. We have a lot of Howards on the frontier, connected to the other backcountry families as well. And Jim, you rascal, are you implying you've stopped short of the James Boys! For shame. They were the Robin Hoods of Missouri, not horse thieves! Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn