EventMarriage Event registration number611 Registration year1861
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesPeter
Spouse's family nameMITCHELL Spouse's given namesMargaret

Margaret might have been a daughter of John Mitchell, a farmer near Dromana, who died of cancer of the stomach in 1862*. Peter Watson was commonly known as John Bryan**.
On page 74 of A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA, Colin McLear, who’d been told that John’s real name was Bryan Watson, stated that John Bryan had married Miss Mitchell, member of a family early in the district.
The birth of two children of Peter and Margaret Watson, delivered by midwife Susan Peatey on 3-2-1867 and 27-10-1869, is documented in Rosalind Peateys’s PINE TREES AND BOX THORNS.

*JOHN MITCHELL. FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1862.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Friday 1 August 1862 p 4 Article
... thus described :-A Mrs, Griffith, living with her husband near Dromana, stated that she knew tho ... following; verdict -"That John Mitchell died on the 28th July, 1862, nt Kangerong, from cancer of the

**PETER WATSON/JOHN BRYAN.
NEW INSOLVENTS.
Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918) Saturday 14 August 1869 p 21 Detailed Lists, Results, Guides
... NEW INSOLVENTS. iPeter Watson, commonly known as John Bryan, of Dromana, laborer. ? Oariaea of ... ; deficiency, £47 9s 9d: '?

GEORGE WATSON WAS BORN ON 27-10-1869 AND HIS SISTER, MARGARET ON 3-2-1867. (Rosalind Peateys’ PINE TREES AND BOX THORNS.)

Bryan- On the 23rd January at Warragul, George, eldest son of late J and M Bryan, Dromana, loved brother Margaret (W.A. ) Dunlop (Dromana) Maitland (Apollo Bay) aged ?? years. (P.1, Argus, 28-1-1936.)

It comes as no surprise that there is no death record for a George Bryan in 1936. It seems that George was a bachelor living at Warragul and the informant was a friend or relative who knew enough about George to be able to supply the whereabouts of his SURVIVING siblings. Mary Hamilton Dalimore may have been his sister but she had died in 1932. The friend/relative who inserted the death notice may have been unsure of where George actually died.

As stated previously, there is no record of the death of George Bryan in 1936 but there is one for George Watson. As nothing was known about his parents, the age given could be wrong. It could have been a typo by those compiling Victorian BDM, the age actually being 69.

EventDeath Event registration number1848 Registration year1936
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesGeo
Father's nameUnknown Mother's nameUnknown (Unknown)
Place of birth (blank) Place of deathMbbin Age59

There was no death notice in 1936 for George Watson! Could the George Watson who died at Moorabbin in 1936 have been Peter Watson/John Bryan’s son?

EventBirth Event registration number21893 Registration year1869
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesGeorge
Father's namePeter Mother's nameMargaret (Mitchell) Place of birthDROMANE

George Bryan’s sister, Margaret was living in W.A. in 1936. Is this her birth?
EventBirth Event registration number1829 Registration year1867
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesMargaret
Father's namePeter Mother's nameMargaret (Mitchell) Place of birthDROMANA

AHA! GEORGE BRYAN’S OTHER SIBLINGS.
EventBirth Event registration number2079 Registration year1877
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesBryan Dunlop
Father's namePeter Mother's nameMargaret (Mitchell) Place of birthDROMANA

EventBirth Event registration number2028 Registration year1872
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesMaitland
Father's namePeter Mother's nameMargaret (Mitchell) Place of birthDROM

JOHN BRYAN’S DEATH RECORD.
EventDeath Event registration number12197 Registration year1909
Personal information
Family nameWATSON Given namesPeter
Father's nameUnknown Mother's nameUnknown (Unknown)
Place of birth (BLANK!) Place of deathDromana Age80

Probable death record of John Bryan’s father in law. This is the only result for John Mitchell 1862 deaths with the right age.
EventDeath Event registration number7534 Registration year1862
Personal information
Family nameMITCHELL Given namesJohn
Father's nameGeorge Mother's nameEllen (Oliver) Place of birthSCOT
Place of death (blank) Age62

The district coroner held an inquest on Wednesday, at Schnapper Point, on the body of a man named John Mitchell. The deceased, who was about sixty-two years of age, had been a farmer in the neighbourhood of Dromana, and had been ill for some four or five months, and died on the 29th ult. from cancer of the stomach, as the post-mortem examination showed. etc.(P.4, Argus, 1-8-1862.)

Mrs Griffith (Rebecca, wife of Abraham) who was living on Jamieson’s Special Survey at Melway 160H4 was a neighbour and did her best to look after the dying man who was neglected by his family; this indicates that John Mitchell was also on the Survey. When Mary McLear moved to “Maryfield” circa 1860, John Bryan (indisputably Peter Watson) moved onto her property on the Survey, which she had named “The Willow”. (P.74, A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA.) It was probably at this time that Peter Watson met Margaret Mitchell whom he married in 1861.