Nickerson Genealogy Project

The Nickerson Genealogy Project

There are four published volumes of The Nickerson Family: The Descendants of William Nickerson (1604-1689) First Settler of Chatham, Massachusetts covering seven generations beginning with William Nickerson and Anne Busby. Part V of this genealogy, which covers eighth-generation descendants, is once again an active project.

Parts I through IV, resulted from the dedicated work of Pauline Derick. She tapped into resources created by Anna Kingsbury and others, spearheaded by NFA founder William Emery Nickerson. She was also ably assisted by many, many Nickerson relations. Pauline’s son Burt carried this work forward after her death in 1997.

In 2006, the Nickerson Family Association hired genealogist and historian Laura G. Prescott to manage the next phase of the published volumes. She is responsible for coordinating the volunteers and the data, existing and yet to be discovered, to bring the records and resources into a manageable, organized format so that Part V can become a published reality. It is an awesome and overwhelming, but manageable, undertaking.

The “Genealogy Project” is divided into two sections: the Library Project and the Database Project. The goal of the Library Project is to physically organize the vast amount of materials currently stored in the Nickerson House as well as materials added to the Nickerson Archives during the course of the project. Additionally, we plan to archive and electronically organize the materials to the best extent possible to ensure ready access in the future. The Association has done a terrific job of accumulating, saving, and storing information and records over the decades. It’s making sense of it all that is the current challenge.

The Database Project involves organizing and ultimately publishing (both in printed and electronic form) the names, dates, events, facts, images, records, and all other pertinent genealogical information formerly or currently in the NFA electronic and physical files, including any additional genealogical and other related information acquired during the project.

Burt Derick began the database by entering 47,000 names from the printed files into a genealogy program called Brother’s Keeper. He also compiled a file of additions and corrections relating to the first four volumes as well as the first sixty pages or so of Generation 8. Because of additional family members discovered in the course of the research, some of your ancestor’s descendants will receive new family numbers. These will be cross-referenced to the original numbers in an addendum in order to avoid confusion and provide continuity between volumes.

The Nickerson House in Chatham is the official archive, library, and command headquarters of everything (that truly means “everything!) relating to the NFA and most particularly, the Genealogy Project. There are files, photos, artifacts, computer records, floppy disks, CDs, and scrapbooks. We will also rely on “mental notes” in the minds of everyone affiliated with the Association.

We will be relying on The Master Genealogist, a powerful genealogy software program donated to the project by Wholly Genes Software, to store and coordinate all the genealogical data. Although The Master Genealogist (TMG) will be the main database, we are also using another program,  Legacy Family Tree for those in “the field.” Anyone wishing to help with entering data into the genealogy database will be given access to Legacy. We will then take that data and easily import it into TMG.

You can help!
As you can well imagine, this is an ambitious and massive project. We need “all hands on deck” to ensure that everything is handled successfully and well. It matters not if you’re on the Cape or at a distance. If you have any skills to contribute, we can use your talents. Much of the work can be done via the Internet, or by mail. Of course, there are also plenty of tasks that need on-site help as well. Most of the Library Project work needs to be done at the Nick House, but anything relating to the Database Project can be done off-Cape and then sent electronically back to headquarters. The following are the broad tasks for which we will need volunteers:

Library Project
- filing, sorting, organizing records
- indexing of manuscript binders
- cataloguing of materials

Database Project
- data entry
- research (either online or in a particular location)
- augmenting source citations
- scanning images and other materials
- transcribing records

If you wish to volunteer for this project, send an email to me, Laura Prescott, at NickGenealogy@charter.net. Please be sure to include which tasks you’d like to help out with and the amount of time you realistically think you can offer each week or each month. If you want to help with research, please elaborate on which geographic areas you have ready access to and what you feel your best skills are. And, of course, please include your contact information so we can reach you to make arrangements for future assignments.

Of course, even if you are unable to devote some time to the project, we hope you will send any and all family information you have pertaining to your Nickerson heritage. We can use data files from your own genealogy program, copies of genealogies your relatives may have compiled, names, dates, places, stories, photos, newspaper clippings, documents - anything is of value to the perpetuation of the Nickerson Family genealogy.

Laura will be at the reunion in September, to update family members on the progress of the Genealogy Project. We look forward to meeting many of you there, and we’re eager to welcome you to the ranks of helpers to ensure that this project runs smoothly and successfully.

Nickerson Family Association, Inc., P.O. Box 296, North Chatham, MA, 02650-0296
Copyright ©2007, Nickerson Family Association. All rights reserved.