This collection contains letters, newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, court records, and a variety of genealogical information on the Dickinson/Dickerson family dating back to the 1600s when the first Dickinson (three brothers) arrived in America from England. These letters were sent to Dolores DuPoint from 1996 to 1999. Letters inform Dolores of progress being made in researching the family as well as personal tangents about Joseph Dickerson’s life. The newspaper clippings are usually relatable to the research such as the clipping of the Dickinson Mansion from 1970 or the article about the Crosaidore house from 1976 where it talks about how it was sadly demolished. They can be, however, random articles that Joseph sends to Dolores just for the fact that it interests him such as the Shanty Boat article. The various maps in the collection range from cemetery plots to a neighborhood scope of where one of the family’s houses stood/stands today. The only photographs in the collection are ones that Joseph took himself of graves belonging to his own or some distant line that connects to his family. The few scattered court records are things that either Joseph or Dolores requested such as land dispute forms and the like.

Joseph A. Dickerson was born in 1926 at Fort George G. Meade. Enlisted into the Air Corps on March 18th, 1944 as a private. He actually completed all four years of high school by doing an accelerated course before going into the military. During WWII he worked for the military police at Reynosa, Texas where he worked with custom and immigration officers checking service men and civilians back and forth across the border. After the war, he worked for G. E. for 42 years. He has a son and a daughter. Attends USGS meetings. Joseph A. Dickerson is descended from the first Dickenson’s, three brothers named Henry, John, and Walter, to come to America from England in 1633 to escape imprisonment for being Quakers. From these brothers, all branches of Dickenson are said to descend.