The spirits may be moving me.
A year ago on Labor Day, I set out to learn more about my great-great-grandfather. All I had was his name, Charles Dickerson, and an 1864 Civil War letter he had written to his wife, Cordelia, as Union forces were closing in on Atlanta.
I wanted to know more about him, early Michigan history, abolition and the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain by Christmas because I planned to give copies of the letter to my 20-something nephews, who have lived most of their lives in Texas.
I thought the letter and historical context would give them roots in seemingly rootless times. I was not prepared for what has happened but am glad it did.
The brief account I planned to write about the Dickersons and their nine children morphed months ago into almost 200 pages of genealogy, pictures and documents about them and other family branches -- Andisons and Andersons on the paternal American side, Rummerts and Jozwowskis on the maternal German side.
I've found so much in such a short time that my cousin Tom Andison suggests that I must be getting some help from my grandmother on "The Other Side." Maybe, but I also had a lot of help from real-life cousins.
Tom gave me a copy of his family tree, researched over two decades, tracing the Andisons back to Scotland in 1728. A new-found cousin, an attorney in New York, sent me a genealogy chart for the Dickersons dating back to 1639 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Other cousins had a 150-year-old Dickerson family photo album, three more Civil War letters, a scrapbook kept for 50 years, 1920 reunion photos and obituaries. Others have helped track third and fourth generations.
Over the last year, I've learned more about the role Puritanism, the Scottish clearances and Irish potato famine played in European emigration, and I've read about the early patterns of American settlement and the tragic effect on Native American life. I've researched the post-war psychological effects on survivors of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust.
I understand now my deep love for the land and family. I fathom why I -- as a 12th generation American on my father's side and first generation on my mother's -- sometimes feel that I live in two worlds. I know that we all are products of our choices, but world events often are beyond our control and can wreak both havoc and beauty on individuals, families and whole populations. I recognize not only my desire for peace, harmony, right thought and right action, but my need for it.
My nephews loved the family history books. It was I who found my roots.
Reach Loraine Anderson via e-mail at landerson@record-eagle.com.
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