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This is my first feeble
attempt at searching out my family tree. So far all the names that have been
placed in my database have been from family documents,
the AOL genealogy forum, family information, and personal
research in archives, etc. The main purpose of the page
is to provide access to the information to family
members. It is hoped that they both enjoy the information
and provide new input and corrections to the existing
database. Please e-mail all comments, suggestions, corrections and new
information to me. Links to individuals are on the Site Map. The photo (c. 1900)
to the left is my paternal grandmother (click on
the image to see a larger version). She was born August
7, 1882 and married my grandfather, William Henry
Atkinson, Sr., on December 15, 1906. She died December
24, 1950.
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Note to
researchers:
The information within these pages
contain mistakes.
I have obtained the
information from a variety of sources. Where I could I
have verified the information and listed the source.
If no source is listed the information has not been
verified by me. In some cases I have used information
obtained from third parties and their source is listed if available.
I
realize that some researchers feel that no information should be
published that has not been verified. It is my belief that the
information should be made available for review by the largest number
of people possible so mistakes can be more readily identified and
corrected. (continued
below)
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So far my primary interest has been in
extending the lineage within the ATKINSON family. Secondary
interests are in extending the lineage for the BASS, BERRIE, BEST,
NELSON and SELLERS families. Any information provided for any of
the families is appreciated. Currently, there are over 2000
names in the tree with the earliest dating back to 1564.
I began my search in the
Camden and Glynn Counties
area of Georgia since that is where I was born.
Additionally, that is where the largest concentration of
the family that I knew lives (or lived). My father
happened to have been born in Warsaw, North Carolina, but
the family returned to the southern Glynn County area
shortly after the death of my great-grandfather, Elias Reed Atkinson, in 1909 in Ocala,
Florida. My father was just a few months old at the time. The family home, Fish
Hall, is where several generations of my family
lived, raised families and died. My paternal grandmother,
Sallie Clare Atkinson, was a certified teacher and taught most of her children right at Fish Hall.
If
anyone who reads these pages happens to have an old
photograph or two of Fish Hall I would
appreciate it greatly if I could receive scans of them to place here on
the Atkinson Family site.
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Alexander, John and Nathan Atkinson
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World War II spread the
family around the nation and in some cases the world.
Virtually all of my father's brothers were in one armed
service or the other. My Uncle Alex (Alexander Atkinson -
1918-1993) was in the US Navy and worked in the
intelligence section aboard the aircraft carrier USS
Randolph and served in the Pacific Theater. My Uncle John
(John Reid Atkinson - 1920-1982) was in the US Army and
served in the European Theater during WWII. John was
wounded when a jeep he was in hit a land mine and he
return to a military hospital in Charleston, South
Carolina during the summer of 1945 for treatment. Even
though he was released from the service after getting
well, he later returned to the Army from which he
retired. My uncle Nathan (Silas Nathan Atkinson -
1924-living) was also in the US Navy and served in the
Pacific Theater. Alex and Nathan made the papers during
the war when they visited each other at sea using one of
the cable operated chairs between ships. |
R.B. Atkinson, Sr.
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My father, Richard Berrie
ATKINSON, Sr., worked for the Department of Navy as a
civilian and ended up at the Charleston Naval Shipyard in
Charleston, South Carolina and never left. He was an
engineer at the Charleston Naval Shipyard power plant. My
dad passed away on July 28, 1996. He was buried at St.
Paul's Episcopal Church in Hollywood, SC. Most of his
sisters ended up working for the government and settling
in the Washington, D.C. area. Emma Lou Atkinson
(1913-1993) married Wilfrid John Dierkes in 1939 and Mary
Blue Atkinson (1916-unknown) married Leslie Albert
Gooding, Jr. in 1952. Their sister Clare Atkinson
(1915-1991) never married. |
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Fish Hall ceased to
exist when the family spread far and wide. I visited Fish
Hall several times as a young child with my father
and mother to pay respects at the family burial site
(since moved to the cemetery at Emanuel Methodist Church
just off US 82 west of Brunswick) located on the
property. The last time I really remember going there was
for my grandmother's burial in December of 1950. Where Fish
Hall stood a housing area now exists. Some of the
property must have stayed in the family for a while
because I remember going duck and wild turkey hunting
with my father and one of my uncles out in the Fish
Hall area up until the mid-1950s. |
(continued from
above)
Since starting these pages I have received several e-mails informing
me of incorrect information which I have been able to verify and
correct.
Therefore, if you
find a mistake in any of these pages please take the time to send me
an e-mail and identify the mistake. If you have the correct
information and source that will be greatly appreciated as well.
Most of the
mistakes within these pages pertain to the Bass Family.
When I first started doing research I obtained a copy of
a GEDCOM submitted by Connie L. Bass which he now
states contained errors since he based a lot of his
earlier work on Albert Bell's Bass Families
of the South.
I have obtained a complete copy of Albert
Bell's Bass Families of the South
and I am slowly going through it and trying to prove or
disprove the information contained within the book. As
that work progresses I will make changes to the
information contained within the pedigree and family
group sheet sections of these pages and note those
changes within the notes and source listings. Dick
Atkinson
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The Marshes
of Glynn
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I will never forget the time
when my father, my uncle and I were hunting ducks in the
marshes made famous in the poem "The Marshes of Glynn" by Sidney
Lanier. We were doing fairly well. We had gotten about
five ducks and had them sitting in a pile behind our duck
blind fashioned from the marsh grass on the edge of the
river. My father shot the next duck and when we went to
put it in the pile found that two of the previous ducks
were missing. I was given the task of keeping an eye on
the ducks from that point on and since I was only 8 or 9
years of age it was no great surprise when I gave a
squeal when this little furry beast came out of the marsh
grass and grabbed one of the ducks and pulled it back
into the marsh. From that point on we all watched to the
back of the duck blind instead of out front. In a little
while the little furry animal came back again and tried
to grab another duck. My father told me that it was a
mink. At any rate, I don't suppose we did too bad - we
had three ducks and the mink had three ducks.
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Island Grove Motel and Swimming Pool
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My mother was born Minnie
Lorena Nelson in Waverly, Camden County, Georgia. She
attended school, from what I remember being told, in both
White Oak and Woodbine. Her mother, Susan Gertrude Nelson
(nee: Sellers), is buried in Quarterman Cemetery right
outside of Waverly. My mother was very active in sports
and played softball on a team either from the area or up
in Brunswick. I know that she use to enjoy going to watch
me play baseball with some of the children of her friends
at both White Oak and Woodbine. I also remember my mother
taking me swimming at one of the coldest pools I have
ever been in between Waverly and White Oak. It was
located right on US 17 where it was build by one of my
relatives, Burwell Atkinson, sometime after he returned
from World War I. My mother passed away on March 11, 2000.
The
top photograph was taken on January 26, 1997 from a point
in the middle of the concrete slab that is all that
remains of the old motel. The view is looking out across
the pool to US 17 (the opposite of the old photograph). There was probably no more than 20-30 feet between the
edge of the pool and the edge of the highway. A note of
interest - the water from the artesian well feeding the
pool was still running.
The bottom photo was scanned
from a photo appearing in Camden's Challenge. Copies of this book can be obtained by sending $30.00
plus $4.00 shipping and handling to
Bryan-Lang Historical Library,
P.O. Box 725, Woodbine, GA 31569. The top photo was taken by me.
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Bryan-Lang
Historical Library
P.O. Box 725, Woodbine, GA 31569
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I have added more photographs to the site now.
Regretfully, there are many that I have that I do not
know the people who are appearing in them. I have added
pages to the photograph section showing the photograph
and any information that I could find as to who, when,
where and photographer. I would greatly appreciate anyone
having any additional information e-mailing me with the
details. |
| I have finally gotten my hands on the old family
photographs that were kept by my mother prior to her passing. The really
sad part to this whole story is that even before she passed away she was
blind and couldn't help me identify the people and places in the photographs.
Why is it that when
we decide to do something like this we always seem to wait until it is too
late? It is almost like it isn't important until we look
around one day and most of the "old people" are
gone - then we start wishing that we had taken more of an
interest in the family and family history before it was
lost or forgotten. When an uncle past away in 1993, I obtained about a dozen
photographs of the Bass Family
from the Warsaw, North Carolina area. Now there is no one
remaining except my Aunt Mary ask about the photographs. My Aunt
Mary was able to help me with about half of the photographs, but there
are still others that I need help with.
It was the passing of
my uncle, Alexander Atkinson, pictured above with two of his brothers,
in 1993 that got me started in this quest. While going through
his belongings, I found about a dozen family group sheets that he had
compiled for Dr. Sam Atkinson (Burwell Atkinson side of the family) of
Jacksonville, Florida (formerly of Waverly, Georgia). The next
thing I knew I had purchased a genealogy program and started entering
the data and I haven't stopped entering data since.
Even though I have
many regrets that I did not start this journey much earlier in my
life, I am thankful for all the new relatives I have met since
starting. Just as it seemed my family was getting smaller with
the deaths of my father and mother and many of their brothers and
sisters during the past ten years, I have found that the family is in
fact growing by leaps and bounds as I get to meet and talk with
relatives I never knew I had.
One family member who
I have met since getting into genealogy is Gina Fisher (nee Guinn)
who's great-great-grandfather is my great-grandfather, Elias Reed
Atkinson. Gina saw this site and got in touch with me. We
have visited with her and her family on several occasions - in one
case, it was almost a mini family reunion with three generations
represented between our two families. Thanks to Gina and her
mother, Elsie Guinn (nee Atkinson), I was also able to visit the
gravesite of my great-grandfather to pay my respects and place flowers
on his grave and that of his wife, Lucy Berrie. I had been
especially interested in finding their gravesites since Lucy was the
source of my middle name.
Katherine Adams (nee
Atkinson) is another family member who I have had the pleasure of
meeting since getting into genealogy. Katherine is the sister of
Dr. Samuel Atkinson, who passed away several years ago, and still
lives in one of the old family homes, Incachee Too, in Waverly,
Georgia. I can't thank Katherine enough for the wonderful hours
she has spent with me, my wife, Judy, and my brothers, Johnny and
Alex. Especially the times when she told me wonderful stories
about both my mother and father during the years they were growing
up. Katherine was also responsible for me getting to visit one
of the old family homes, Black Hammock Plantation, and the Black
Hammock Cemetery where members of at least four generations of
Atkinsons are buried.
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Since this
is an evolving page errors may crop up from time to time.
If you encounter an error in spelling, content, links,
etc. please send me a note at the e-mail address below
and give me a description of the error.
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Richard Berrie
Atkinson, Jr.
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You can reach me by
e-mail at: Dick Atkinson . . .
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