Ancestry of
Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
President and CEO of I.B.M.
Who was Thomas Waton, Jr.?
Thomas Watson Jr. was a President and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM). He followed in the footsteps of his father who served as the Chairman and CEO of IBM. While his father is credited with growing IBM into an international company based largely on sales of punched card tabulating machines, it was the son who redirected the company into computers and its eventual domination of mainframe computers. In 1987, Fortune magazine called him “the greatest capitalist in history”, and in 1999, Time magazine included him in its list of the “100 most influential people of the 20th century.”
Thomas Watson Jr. also served as the 11th national president of the Boy Scouts of America and the 16th U. S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1964, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. IBM’s Watson computer system that is capable of answering questions posed in natural language, and is often seen in quirky commercials, was name after Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr. who together led IBM for more than a half century.
Famous Kin
Thomas Watson Jr. is a descendant of Mayflower passenger William White. He has a number of former U.S. Presidents in his family tree including Millard Fillmore, William H. Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and both Presidents Bush.
Some of Thomas Watson Jr’s celebrity kin include Mark Wahlberg, Humphrey Bogart, Kyra Sedgwick, George Hamilton, Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster, Carole Lombard, Alexandra Breckenridge, and a number of others. Other notable kin include Declaration of Independence signers Robert Treat Paine, William Williams and Lyman Hall, author and poet Henry David Thoreau, inventor Thomas Edison, Mormon Church president Brigham Young, Battle of Bunker Hill General Joseph Warren, dictionary publisher Noah Webster, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, bank financier J.P. Morgan, Macy’s founder Rowland Macy, author Louisa May Alcott, and many others.
Some of the most recently added connections of famous kin for Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Rear Admiral William Folger
United States Navy
6th cousin 3 times removed
via Rev. Thomas Mayhew Jr.
Francis Edward Hinckley
Co-Founder, University of Chicago
6th cousin 4 times removed
via Samuel Hinckley
Alice French
(aka Octave Thanet)
Novelist and Short Story Writer
6th cousin 4 times removed
via Gov. Thomas Mayhew
Lucretia (Coffin) Mott
Abolitionist and Women's Rights Advocate
5th cousin 4 times removed
via Rev. Thomas Mayhew Jr.
Marcus Morton
16th and 18th Governor of Massachusetts
4th cousin 6 times removed
via Gov. Thomas Mayhew
View entire list of famous kin for Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Please note: The ancestor reports on this website have been compiled from thousands of different sources, many over 100 years old. These sources are attached to each ancestor so that you can personally judge their reliability. As with any good genealogical research, if you discover a link to your own family tree, consider it a starting point for further research. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. FamousKin.com cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy and reliability of these sources.