This area of the site covers a little of the history that led to the formation of the society, lays out our aims and ambitions, and covers the Mission, Strategic Pillars and Values that will lie behind everything we do as we grow this community.
About Us
How it All Began
I have to admit to never having paid much attention to my paternal family history. My mother's side is very well researched as my maternal grandmother and then an aunt devoted much of their lives to unravelling the past few centuries of their family line, but aside from a few immediate relatives I had no knowledge of who came before me on my father's side.
I first heard of the concept of Scottish clans and, more specifically, Clan Watson in 2004 when I went to the doctor's for a travel vaccination. As the nurse that administered the shot took my details, she said "Ah - another member of the Clan!". I asked what she meant, and heard mention of the term "Clan Watson" for the first time. I left the surgery with my head buzzing (and my arm throbbing), itching to find out more. I called my parents and told them of my earlier discussion at the surgery. They were a little surprised that I was unaware that the surname Watson had Scottish connections, and it prompted me to do some more research.
My search began, as I suspect many do in this day and age, on the internet. It didn't take me long to find Electric Scotland, which is fairly informative, and then the sadly now-defunct website of the Clan Watson International Society, run by a lovely lady called Elaine Watson Qualley. Unfortunately, Elaine's spouse passed and the international society wound down. The website stopped working some years ago, so it appears that nobody took on the mantle.
As my search continued, I came across the Clan Watson Society of Canada, who used to have a well-developed website and were very active - so active, in fact, that they sent a delegation across to Scotland to meet the Douglas family to talk about a potential new Clan Chief (see the The Clan Chief page for more). It appears that the Canadian society has now wound down as their placeholder website, which reused some of my own text without asking, has recently stopped functioning.
It was around about this time that I started to do my own research, both into my own paternal family history and Clan Watson. I set up my own website (the previous incantation of this site), primarily to act as a record but also to send out a message that I was looking into all things Watson. I was pleased to see that the website generated a fair bit of interest, so I also set up a Facebook group, and it's been slowly gaining momentum ever since.
Although I wasn't enormously active online, I slowly continued my research and building content on the website, working around a busy professional and personal life. A couple of years back, as the levels of engagement through the site and the Facebook page continued to increase, I started to think about resurrecting the idea of a Watson Society. I contacted The Court of The Lord Lyon to check that I wasn't about to break some ancient law and received their full blessing. It's taken me a few years to get to this point, but here we are - a fledgling Clan Watson Society arises! I will be looking to ramp up engagement and awareness over the coming months; hopefully there will be sufficient interest out there that we can make something of it!
Over the next few pages, I will cover the vision for the society, how I see it growing, what I see it doing, and how others can be involved. I'd love feedback on all this, as if the society is to truly succeed it needs to work for Watsons and their kin the world over, not just follow my particular vision, so if you have something to say, please let me know by using the Contact Page or join the discussion on the Facebook group!