Pioneer Research Tools and the Society of Indiana Pioneers

September 12th 7 p.m. - Paoli Public Library Meeting Room - Everyone Welcome!

Jan Aikman Dickson

Explore how to learn more about Indiana’s pioneer relationships, stories, and ideals. The focus will be on frontier research resources online and in libraries for Indiana and the Trans-Allegheny West as well as Society of Indiana Pioneers records, publications, scholarships, grants, tours, rallies, & programs. There may be names in your own family tree that have already been proven to qualify you for Society of Indiana Pioneers membership because an ancestor was here by 1840 in most counties or 1850 in some northern counties.

The Society of Indiana Pioneers speaker for this program is Jan Aikman Dickson, who lived most of childhood in Lawrenceburg and Terre Haute, Indiana. Jan and her husband were married in Milan, Indiana, the home of Jan’s maternal grandparents and the 1954 Indiana State High School Basketball Championship Team featured in the film “Hoosiers.” The Dicksons have 3 married sons, 9 remarkable grandchildren, and one truly amazing great-grandson.

Jan has visited all 92 counties in Indiana, all 50 U.S. states, and 1 territory; but continues to love exploring Indiana most of all. When the Dicksons lived in West Lafayette as adults, Purdue University courses in The History of the Family in America, Indiana History, and The Ideology of the American Revolution sparked Jan’s interest and eventual discovery of over 30 Indiana pioneer ancestors. They came to Indiana as early as 1807 and lived in such Indiana counties as Knox, Daviess, Dearborn, Parke, Vermillion, Fountain, Tippecanoe, and likely others. She also created a map of all the first Pioneer Period land purchasers of Wabash and Shelby Townships of Tippecanoe County, indexed an early county deed book, and learned of some of their stories as well as those of her own ancestors. To discover more about pioneer and colonial lives Jan has visited historical libraries, museums, and courthouses in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Scotland, England, and even Arizona, Michigan, and Florida when the original intent in those three states was a relaxing vacation.

Jan is writing a booklet on 40 loving conflict resolution exercises and serves on the Board of The Society of Indiana Pioneers. Her other memberships include the Indiana Historical Society, the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, the Indiana State Assembly Club, and the Tippecanoe County Historical Association. She was made an Indiana “Sagamore of the Wabash,” and received awards from the National Center for State Courts and Conference of Chief Justices for founding the national Judicial Family Institute (JFI) in 1986. Jan continues to serve that nonpartisan organization’s mission of sharing best practices on ethics, stress management, and other areas unique to judges’ households and extended family. She encourages all families today to take heart from Indiana pioneer family stories, and often says: “if they got though all that, we can get through all this!”