April 2006 Newsletter

VOLUME III, NUMBER 2

President’s Message
      
One of the rewards of being webmaster is the occasional e-mails (or letters) I receive from people who have discovered our website and are anxious to find out if they are descendants of Nathaniel Dickinson.  Most of the time I’ve been able to track down a connection through our genealogy book and invariably they are delighted to find this new knowledge of their “roots.”   And the DFA benefits by adding new members!     

An interest in family history is certainly something that all members of the DFA have in common.  Admittedly, this often comes with maturity.  I was in my 50s before I really got hooked.  But recently we have seen a growing number of younger members joining our ranks.   We even have people in their 20s and 30s on our board and/or committees, and we’re very happy to have them.     

The annual reunion is a wonderful way to explore family history and to share your stories and reminiscences with other cousins.  I hope that many of you will take advantage of that opportunity this year at our reunion in Amherst.   Also, if you have something you’d like to display that relates to your family history or to Dickinsons in general, bring it along and we’ll make room for you to show it.      

I look forward to seeing many of you this June in Amherst.                         

Alan C. Dickinson, president  
Text Box: 136th ANNUAL REUNION SCHEDULE FRIDAY, JUNE 23 5 PM Board Meeting, Lord Jeffery Inn, Amherst 6 PM Social Hour, Lord Jeffery Inn, Amherst 7 PM Dinner, Lord Jeffery Inn, Amherst SATURDAY, JUNE 24 9 AM – Noon Gathering of Cousins, South Congregational Church, Amherst 12 Noon Welcome and Lunch, lower level, church hall 1 PM Annual Meeting and Program, upper level, sanctuary 1 PM Children’s Activities, lower level, youth room OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES Jones Library, Amherst: Emily Dickinson Special Collection Room Friday 10-5 PM and Saturday 2-5 PM Emily Dickinson Museum, Main Street, Amherst 9 – 10 AM Saturday; special tour for DFA members; see article elsewhere in this newsletter 2 – 4:30 PM Sunday June 25; Emily Dickinson’s Gardens: Tour & Speaker. (Fee) First Congregational Church, Main Street, Amherst (Designed by Austin Dickinson) Open every day for viewing. Cemetery tours – on your own. West Street Cemetery and Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst. Quabbin Park Cemetery in Ware, MA. Quabbin Reservoir Visitor Center, Belchertown, 9 AM to 4:30 daily. Swift River Valley Historical Museum, New Salem, Sunday 1-4 PM Please return your reservation card as soon as possible. Directions to all events and activities will appear in the June newsletter.
Text Box: SPECIAL TOUR ON REUNION DAY The Emily Dickinson Museum of Amherst is offering our members a special tour at 9AM on the morning of our reunion, June 24, 2006. This will be a one hour tour and will include both the original Dickinson Homestead and the Evergreens, home of Emily’s brother Austin. If you wish to participate in this tour please indicate that on the reservation card when you return it. The price will be $6 for adults and $4 for children, collected at the time of the tour. Tour groups are limited to 10 people, so we need to know how many groups to plan for. If you haven’t visited these houses you should avail yourself of this opportunity.
Text Box: RESULTS OF JANUARY SURVEY We received 55 responses from our January mailing. From these returns 62 persons are interested in attending this year’s reunion and 19 for the Friday dinner. Approximately 300 letters were sent out, so we are hoping that many who didn’t respond will decide to come and help boost the final tally. We also received donations totaling over $1700. We thank those of you who responded to our appeal. The donations were nearly equally divided between the general and the scholarship funds. We’re very pleased to see the additions to our scholarship fund as we feel this is one of our most important endeavors. If you haven’t yet contributed please consider sending a donation along with your reunion registration, or, for that matter, at any time.
Text Box: SCHOLARSHIP ALERT The deadline for submitting applications for the 2006 DFA Scholarship is April 30. If you know of someone who intends to apply this year, please remind them of this impending deadline. Any questions, contact Alan Dickinson, scholarship committee chair: 413-596-9648 6 Garden Lane, Wilbraham, MA 01095. anbdickinson@charter.net.
Text Box: SAD NEWS Each year’s reunion is a happy occasion except when it comes time to read the obituaries for the previous year. Although we usually wait until the annual meeting, we are mentioning here the passing of one of our members. Harvey A. Dickinson of Belchertown, MA passed away on March 10. Harvey had been a member of the DFA for only 2 years, but those of us who knew him knew a wonderful gentleman with a wealth of knowledge of the Swift River Valley. He had agreed to share some of that knowledge with us in our reunion program this year. His death is a loss not only for his family but also for this association. Our sincere condolences go out to Harvey’s wife, Doris, and their family.
Text Box: GENEALOGY BOOK UPDATE We continue to work toward the goal of publishing a 3rd edition of our genealogy. Unfortunately, we have not yet solved a major problem in readying the manuscript for printing. This book of over 1500 pages is a very complex project. We have already overcome obstacles along the way and are working to resolve this last one. Hopefully the book will still be ready this year and we’ll announce it as soon as we can. Meanwhile, the 2nd edition is still available for purchase.
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