They Came from England

The Watson family (Shadrach Charles and Kezia Chapman Watson) came to the United States in the early 1880s. Shadrach Charles Watson's family was from northeast Hampshire in England. Kezia's family was from Suffolk. They married in London and raised their family there until they headed to Utah. Their family lived in Mendon, Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah and then settled more permanently in Mountain View, Alberta, Canada where both Shadrach and Kezia (went by Kate most of her life) are buried. Shadrach Charles and his family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they had a goal to join the Saints in Utah. That dream for their family ended with the death of his mother, Mary Cooper Watson, in 1856 when Shadrach Charles was 12 years old. You can read more about all this in the histories... Make sure you read about Ann Kenneday Knock as well.

Much research has been done on the Watson lines and on the Chapman lines. The Watsons were descendants of relatively wealthy papermakers, maltsters, and land owners in both Hampshire and Berkshire. Thanks to wills, much of their ancestry has been traced in to the early 1600s.