But while Watson *forms* a family with Mary, he's estranged from his family of birth in a way that's kind of reminiscent of RayK I think -- see the bit at the start of SIGN when Holmes deduces things about Watson's father and his alcoholic brother, for instance... and do we ever hear about Watson's birth-family again in canon? (I think not, but I'm not quite sure.) We learn about a couple of university friends of Holmes's in the canon, and of course Mycroft is there, but who do we have from Watson's life? Stamford, briefly, in the opening chapter of A Study in Scarlet... whatsisname from The Naval Treaty, who Watson hasn't seen since school, and ummmm I can't think of anyone else. Am I missing anyone? In any case, that feels more like RayK with his turtle than RayV with his demonstrative, noisy family all living in the same house.