Scott Dickson

A Multi-Talented Man 52 Ancestors Week 25 – Artistic I am late to get this week’s post written. I just got home from a big family vacation. Five of my six siblings and step-siblings on my stepdad’s si…

I found lots of what looked like poems in my great-grandfather's trunk, along with little painted greeting cards. What's the story behind them?

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/a...

#52Ancestors #Genealogy #FamilyHistory

He carried them in his saddlebags 52 Ancestors Week 23 – Wedding Bells It’s June and that’s a time when there are often wedding bells ringing. This is a story about a February wedding. What are some of the things …

This week's installment of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Wedding Bells about some wedding gifts still in the family after 125 years.

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/h...

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Wren Reunion 25 Ancestors Week 22 – Reunion George Washington Wren was born in 1802 in the Waxhaw area of Lancaster County, South Carolina, right in the same neighborhood where Andrew Jackson was born som…

My mother's family has been having reunions since 1949 for the descendants of two Wren brothers of Louisiana and Arkansas. I am looking forward to being able to go next year - first time in over 50 years! #52Ancestors #Genealogy

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As Gomer would say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!” 52 Ancestors Week 21 – Military Well, this week certainly didn’t pan out like I expected! I started out thinking I would ask you all questions about how to track the military service an…

I found an ancestor who fought on what later became a family farm and also participated in one of the pivotal events in the town where I lived for nearly 30 years, the Roswell Mills Deportations.

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/05/25/a...

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#Genealogy

My First Research Trip 52 Ancestors Week 19 – At the Library I know this is cheating, but I am going to share a rerun this week plus a quick story about a trip to the big Library. A couple of years ago, we had this…

And here's last weeks' story about the first trip my Mom and I took to the Family History Library. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/m...

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#Genealogy

Robert at the Wheel 52 Ancestors Week 20 – Wheel Robert Harrison Dickson was a street car motorman, guiding street car #21 of the Fort Smith Light & Traction company along his route for sixteen years. He sta…

How about driving a streetcar for a story about wheels? My great-grandfather was a streetcar motorman. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/r... #52Ancestors

I have found some, but I still think I am not convinced on some of what I have found. They are really hard to find good proof for. Poor dirt farmers don't leave a lot of records.

Retired Sailors on the Beach 52 Ancestors Week 18 – Institutions Pappy Frazer was practically an institution, himself. He had been in Memphis forever and his family had been there even longer. His grandfather was the att…

Back with another 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks story.

Topic this time is Institutions.

I missed a couple of weeks due to "Life", but I am back with a story of an institution that continues today: the U.S. Naval Home in Gulfport, Mississippi.

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/05/05/r...

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All That Glitters Might Be Mud 52 Ancestors Week 15 – Big Mistake “Go West, young man!”, urged Horace Greeley. Able-bodied, ambitious, brave, adventurous young men were encouraged to head west to find adventure…

Week 15 of 52 Ancestors - Big Mistake is the theme.

Is it a mistake to take big risks? See what one ancestor thought when he followed his gold fever to California during the Gold Rush.

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/a...

#52Ancestor #Genealogy #Bailey

Hoping for No Surprises 52 Ancestors Week 13 – Home Sweet Home Years ago, when my wife and I purchased our first home, we bought a wonderful house in the Wexford subdivision in Roswell, GA. One of the cool things (t…

Catching up with my 52 Weeks of Ancestors:

Week 13 - Home Sweet Home - wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/04/08/h...

Week 14 - Language - wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/04/10/t...

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Franciska and the Gillespie Loading Factory Explosion 52 Ancestors Week 12 – Historical Event By the first week of October, 1918, the America was deeply involved in the Great War in Europe. The European war had been dragging on for over four lon…

Franciska Reglin was witness to one of the largest munitions factory explosions in history, the Gillespie Loading Factory blast during WWI.
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#52Ancestors

Sorry to be so slow. My MIL said she was unable to comment on the blog, too. Will look into it.

Maybe one day I will open them. Just not yet and not while my aunt is still living (their only other daughter).

He said "We're not spending tonight like we did 5 years ago." Seemed a pretty bold innuendo for a Baptist preacher! He was also proud of catching and cooking a chicken in the same letter.

True enough. I have a lot of others that I have read, transcribed, scanned, and preserved. Some of them are pretty spicy, too. My gg-grandfather wrote to my gg-grandmother on their 5th wedding anniversary from a battlefield in Virginia during the Civil War.

Secrets or Not My Business 52 Ancestors Week 9 – Family Secret I wonder where the line is between a family secret and none of my business. Truthfully, I have not turned over any juicy family secrets in my nearly 40 yea…

Oh No! Here's an updated one just to be sure.

wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/03/02/s...

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 9.

Here's a love story about a secret that I am not even going to try to find. wrenacres.wordpress.com/.../secrets-...

#52Ancestors #Genealogy

Southward Ho! 52 Ancestors Week 8 – Migration Amy Johnson Crow gives us a prompt for this week of “Migration.” She says, “Almost everyone has ancestors who came from somewhere else. Who i…

Here's a story of migration and the forces that led to it. Aylesbury Shehee migrated from a comfortable life in middle Georgia to south Georgia, and ultimately into Florida, in search of greener fields. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/02/22/s...
#52Ancestors #Genealogy

A Letter But Not Much News 2025 Week 7 – Letters & Diaries Amy Johnson Crow asks us “Do you have any in your family? Who wrote them? If you don’t have any letters or diaries, which ancestor do you wish had le…

Week 7 of the 52 Week Ancestor Challenge. This week, the topic is "Letters & Diaries"

I hope folks can help me pull out more details from this 1848 letter from Kentucky to Missouri. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/02/13/a...

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I don’t even know. We just moved here and are kind of lamenting the local radioscape

Meanwhile, our local news radio was complaining this morning that the show "was not patriotic enough" and that "clearly they didn't get the memo that This President won the election." :-(

Surprise! 2025 Week 6 – Surprise Way back in September 2018, I wrote a bit about my great-great-grandmother, Bettie (Cooper) Cason, and her time in Africa with her husband, Rev. J.H. Cason, as missiona…

Week 6 of 52 Ancestors - Surprise! I kind of wish I had an ancestor named Gomer for this week. But a big surprise on the high seas will have to do.

Here's the story of my great-great-grandparents and their surprise. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/02/07/s...

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2025 Week 4 – Overlooked He’s not going to be overlooked again Taking a look at the other posts for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, I can see several themes emerging. There are stories of exciting ancestors…

Here is week 4 of the 52-Week Challenge. This week, the prompt is Overlooked. This is the sad story of a little boy who was overlooked by his father. #52Ancestors #genealogy

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2025 Week 3 – Nickname A Girl Named … John?1 Nicknames are a funny thing. How we think about them often comes from the origin of the name. Some are simple – just shortened or tweaked versions of given names, …

It's Week 3 of the #52Ancestors in 52 Weeks quest. This week is Nickname and is about a name my grandmother gave herself that stuck. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/01/21/2...

2025 Week 2 – Favorite Picture 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks The prompt for Week 2 is Favorite Picture. Photos are one of my very favorite parts of family history. I have been so blessed to have hundreds of real, in-my-hands photos f…

It's Week 2 in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. The prompt this week is "Favorite Picture". Here's a photo that isn't really a favorite per se, but one that has always intrigued me. So, this was a great time to find out more about it. wrenacres.wordpress.com/2025/01/12/2... #52Ancestors #Tennison

2025 Week 1 – In the Beginning 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks In the beginning was the stuff. And the stuff was good and helped us to remember where we came from. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, one of the Joads says &#…

Week 1 is In the Beginning. Here's a quick bit about my beginning both in genealogy and in a whole new life adventure. #52Ancestors

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Who here is doing @amyjohnsoncrow.bsky.social’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks? I took a couple of years off but am going to have a go at it again this year. #52Ancestors

I just love the autoharp. Makes me think of Mother Maybell Carter and little kid Sunday School at the same time.

Moving to a new city after 28 years is a bit terrifying, but Charleston, here we come! Less than two weeks!

I took 20 boxes out of my genealogy closet so far and have not started packing heirlooms. Putting them on a truck scares me to death! My whole history in someone else's hands. #genealogy

Alabama is tough. Mississippi is tough. All of the "frontier" areas are tough. Lots of burned records (not just Civil War, but all kind of fires, even today), lots of missing records due to bugs, floods, poor record keeping, etc.

But if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun, would it? :-)

Way too many gaps in my #familytree. I have to get out to at least Generation 8 to get out of the U.S. Still working on the towns.