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You might want to greet family myths with skepticism and rely only on facts you can verify independently - most families in Appalachia have a tale about an Indian grandparent a few generations back. Some of them base it on having dark colouring, some just on the romance of the idea, few can back it up when they go to the records. Plenty actually find that the 'Indian' ancestor was black or mulatto but 'Indian' went down better with the folks. Many families from southern WV and northern VA are actually racially mixed Melungeons, some of whom seem to have Mediterranean bloodlines. Watanna in modern Arabic means 'homeland' - you'll hear it on TV when the news footage shows Palestinians chanting protests. More likely was that your family got the name Watanna from writer Onoto Wanatta (1875-1954), real name Winifred Eaton, of English-Chinese ancestry who escaped anti-Chinese sentiment of the the time by reinventing herself as Japanese. Her first novel 'A Japanese Nightingale' capitalised on her exotic looks and made her a famous part of NY's literati - her novels were all the rage at the time and she went on (shedding the kimono along the way) to scriptwriting in Hollywood. Watanna is much more accessible for English speaking families than Onoto and so the name was occasionally copied, especially in racially mixed families when there were ethnic roots to be played up or down according to public thought. Since your wife was born in the era when she died, it's possible some older relative 'remembered' what was an exotic name of the time, just as they 'remembered' some Indian root to make it more personally significant. I'd suggest your wife start with her parents and gather the records, working back 4-5 generations and see if this g-g-g-g-gran Watanna actually shows up ;o)

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cheers

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Devon