J. C. Watson, a Genealogical Note

John Christian (Chris) Watson (1867P-1941) was president of the New South Wales Trades and Labor Council in 1892-94. He was the outstanding Labor man in Australia in the 1890s and became the first Federal Labor leader in 1901. He was Prime Minister from April to August 1904. Most sources give Watson's birth date and place as 9 April 1867 at Valparaiso, Chile, though there are suggestions that he was born at sea between Valparaiso and Port Chalmers (Dunedin, Otago). He was in New Zealand at a very early age. He, himself, gave Valparaiso as his birth place when he married (1) Ada Jane Low at Sydney on 27 November 1889, and (2) Antonia Mary Dowlan on 30 October 1925. But (1) in 1889 he gave his parents' names as George Thomas Watson and Martha, n?e Skinner, and (2) in 1925 as George Thomas Watson and Martha, n?e Minchin. Martha Minchin married Johan Christian Tanck at Port Chalmers on 19 January 1866; he was described as chief officer of the brig Julia, which had arrived at Port Chalmers from Talcahuano, Chile, on 24 December 1865, and departed for Guam on 2 February 1866. Witnesses were James and Ellen Martha Skinner. Martha Tank (sic) married George Thomas Watson at Waipori, Otago, on 15 February 1869. As Martha Watson she died, aged 39, and was buried in Oamaru (Otago) cemetery on 2 February 1888, leaving her husband and nine (ten) children, the eldest being a male, aged 20. Her death certificate shows that (1) she married John Tank (sic) at Waipori, when aged 18, and (2) George Watson, when aged 20. George Thomas Watson died at Oamaru on 11 July 1924, and is shown as having married Martha Minchin, when aged 28, and as having had ten children, the eldest a male aged 56. To date I have not been able to obtain a birth certificate for John Christian Watson. It may be true that he was born on 9 April 1867 at Valparaiso, or on a ship between there and New Zealand. It is highly probable that his mother was Martha Minchin (Skinner?) who married Johan Christian Tanck on 19 January 1866. And it is probable that the latter was his father, which would mean that his name was John Christian Tanck, and that he became part of the Watson family when his mother married George Thomas Watson on 15 February 1869. His age in February 1888, when his mother died, would probably have been 20 (turning 21 on 9 April) so there is a slight discrepancy in Martha Watson's death certificate, which indicates his birth year as 1868; when George Thomas Watson died on 11 July 1924, he would probably have been 57, not 56 as shown on G. T. Watson's death certificate, which also indicates a birth year of 1868. Incidentally, when he remarried in Sydney on 30 October 1925 J. C. Watson gave his age as 58 (i.e. born 1867). On his first marriage on 27 November 1889 he said he was 24 (i.e. born 1865). At this stage, the available evidence suggests strongly that John Christian Watson was the son of Johan Christian Tanck and Martha, n?e Minchin (Skinner?). I have no information on Tanck senior's death 102

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