Joseph Watson of Ireland, Nebraska, & Liverpool

So I received an email today from a relative of one Joseph Watson, born in Ireland in 1850 who went to Lincoln, Nebraska as an importer of horses. He traveled back and forth across the ocean and eventually died 1912 in Liverpool on a purchasing trip. Sounds as if he's a good match for the J Watson that Edward Allen Dickins was going to meet in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1904. Now if we can only figure out how or why.

A few interesting tidbits on Joseph Watson:

A case brought up in the Nebraska Supreme Court:



His company maintained several horses for breeding purposes. Here are a few listed in the American Shire Horse stud Book. Here the company is listed in Beatrice, Nebraska.

Climbing Down the Family Tree

According to the marriage contract, Edward Allen Dickins & Sydney Howard Dickins were both in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 1908, when it was written. On an hunch I searched the FamilySearch Pilot site for Sydney Howard Dickins and Edward Allen Dickins...and found that Edward had come in through Ellis Island in 1904! He was 20 years and 4 months, single, a farmer, from "B'head" [Birkenhead] and going to Lincoln City, Nebraska to meet a friend, J. Watson.

So I started searching for more information on Edward and Sydney. I found that the Canadian censues are nearly all available online through their archive. I couldn't find either of them on the 1906 census or the 1911 census and found that they don't have the 1916 census posted. But Ancestry.com had it indexed and I found both of them in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Now I have to go to the library to get the actual image of the census!

I also have to find out more about this J. Watson character! Nothing so far in immigration on him. In the process, though, I found that FindMyPast.com has indexed out-going ships passenger lists for England, although I didn't find anything that matched the record from Ellis Island. Why? I couldn't find anything on Sydney in those records either. I wonder if they are not yet fully indexed?

Now it is back to the 1901 census and J. Watson. Cheers!