Are you Searching for HAROLD? Click below:
After Charles, we were SEARCHING FOR HAROLDAn inherited family tree project. A trail of old letters. A decades-long obsession.
What began as a standard genealogical search passed down from father to son transformed into an epic hunt through microfilm, property deeds, and remote cemeteries. It all led to one pivotal moment: the sound of a metal rod striking buried granite. Still, more was to come.
Charles Watts was one of millions of working-class English emigrants who risked everything for a chance at a better life. Watts left London for four years of adventure across America and Canada before carving out a legacy as an Illinois prairie pioneer.
Searching for Charles chronicles Watts’s experiences through his vivid, detailed letters home, paired with a subsequent five-decade, multigenerational search by his descendants. As the only published source of these complete transcriptions—most archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum—the book offers a rare window into early nineteenth-century America.
Watts’s correspondence captures a rapidly expanding nation and its explosive growth. His letters detail a burgeoning family feud, the raw realities of pioneer farming, his sharp opinions on European revolutions and other definitive events of his day, and much more.
In 1869, the letters stopped. The man who had inspired thirteen other relatives to join him in his adopted country vanished.
This book is a love letter to family history, immigration, and the American pioneer experience. It speaks directly to anyone holding a box of unorganized family papers, anyone consumed by unfinished genealogy research, and anyone who believes ordinary lives deserve to be remembered.
Inside, you will discover:
• The Power of Letters: How personal correspondence bridges centuries, offering an intimate, first-person look at Victorian-era global migration.
• The Anatomy of a Genealogist’s Hunt: The methods, breakthroughs, and gripping moments of a 55-year multigenerational search.
• An Unfiltered History: The Midwestern homesteading pioneer experience, told in one man’s own words.
• A Race Against Time: What it truly takes to rescue and preserve your family legacy before the last traces vanish.
If the unfinished stories in your family history have ever pulled at you, this book will inspire you to take another look. Order your copy of the multiple-award-winning Searching for Charles today.
First Place in 1) History Nonfiction, 2) Letters, Journals, Diaries.
Honorable Mention in 1) Biography/Autobiography/Memoir, 2) New Author: Nonfiction.
Gold in 1) Biography/Historical, 2) History/United States, 3) New Nonfiction.
Book Readers Appreciation Group (B.R.A.G.) Medallion Honoree in Non-Fiction.
Silver in History.
Bronze in Autobiography/Biography/Memoir.
Certificate of Excellence in Scholarly Books.
Special Recognition Award for contributions toward honoring Illinois ancestors through the book Searching for Charles.
Illinois Author designation in the Library of Congress affiliate Illinois Center for the Book.
Finalist in Journalistic Non-Fiction.
Category Finalist.
Finalist in 1) Nonfiction: History, 2) Nonfiction: True Story.
Finalist in uncategorized book competition.
One of the most engaging historical narratives that I've encountered...The fascinating story of Charles Watts' journey as an English immigrant to the United States in the early 1800's and his amazing journey throughout all of the young country and into Canada...gives insights to the social, economic, political, technological and cultural developments during this time period.
The author has woven the letters into a captivating story of the times and of the social context in an evolving and changing America. Charles’ letters are interspersed with data such as cost of land, construction and agriculture and an analysis of that data to enumerate the differences between his old and new countries. Charles was astute in his observations of the politics and societal issues of the times.
For anyone who loves history, it will be the true story of what pioneers of that area and era experienced in the actual words of Charles Watts. The author's structure makes it easy to move in and out of different timelines, especially to be able to search for dates, place names, etc.
This is a wonderful book! There are three things necessary for a good book - 1. a good story, 2. a good storyteller, 3. a technically well-constructed book. Searching for Charles certainly checked off each of these requirements!
Author Stephen Watts traces the journey of his English great-great grandfather to America via his letters in a very engrossing and intertwined narrative. Searching for Charles is a remarkable feat of scholarship, one that can’t be emulated by ancestry.com, and with sleuthing worthy of a top-notch private eye.
If you enjoy history, this is your chance to get immersed in what it was like to live during the earlier days of the US. Highly recommend this book!
With a combination of deep research and accessible writing, Searching for Charles engaged me from the opening page...It’s what I call a real page-turner. I have read fiction and watched films about the early prairie pioneers but I hadn’t fully appreciated the challenges they faced or the legacy they left and Stephen Watts’ meticulous research adds a compelling degree of social context.
The story of how everything came together for this book (Part 3) was fascinating. It demonstrated Watts's dedication, perseverance, and persistence to uncover and tell the story of his ancestors.
These unique letters offer the reader a fascinating window through which to better view, understand, and experience a portion of the life of an Everyman on the Illinois Prairie...It is a wonderful read and a unique preservation of significant historical materials.
Well-written account using Charles’ letters as the source but also including a ton of research to provide a solid base. I appreciated the summaries provided before the actual letters. Enjoyable read bringing the personalities of those involved to life.
It is one thing to read the history of an area in a textbook or a novel - it’s quite another to see it through the eyes of someone who actually lived it.
I felt like I took a journey back in time.
Click the blue See All Reviews button below to read all eight reviews.
★★★★★ The objective of any author should be to hold the reader’s interest. To want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning until the end, and this is what Searching for Charles: The Untold Legacy of an Immigrant’s American Adventure does. Measured in his prose, Stephen Watts …
A Timeless Narrative Author Stephen Watts is a very lucky man. He was fortunate to have access to a treasured collection of family correspondence which had been compiled over several generations. Some documents were in the possession of his father; others were held by other relatives. A larger collection had …
★★★★★ Taking readers on a historic journey across the Atlantic and into the burgeoning American continent, Searching for Charles: The Untold Legacy of an Immigrant’s American Adventure by Stephen Watts is a stunning portrait of the past. In 1835, Charles Watts left the oppressive gloom of Dickensian London in search of a …
Click below for a video/slide version of the 30-minute Author Hour podcast.
Connect with Stephen Watts via email, Facebook or LinkedIn —>
