Dodson Genealogy: 1600-1907. E-book. Formato PDF Thompson P. Ege   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

The inspiration and desire to make this research in F am ily History was born in the heart and mind of the author in the days of his childhood, from the story frequently told him by an aged grandparent on maternal side. This was the story of their escape late in the year 1784 from an Indian raid, in a canoe across the Susquehanna River, when, looking back, they saw their new and humble home in the far-famed Wyom ing Valley, burned with all its contents by the Indians. The same desire all through life to find the spot where this early home in Luzerne County stood, was at length rewarded a few years since, and the author stood on the heap of stones, which remain to this day undisturbed for more than a cen tury, to mark the spot, and hand down to memory the story of the cruelty of the wily and savage foe of those early days, and of the hardships endured by these hardy and brave pioneers, among whom were the great — grandsire of the author, yiz., Richard Dodson, and his two brothers, John and Samuel, who settled in Luzerne County about the close of the War of the Revolution. It is the purpose of the author to place a tablet to mark the site of that early home. Genealogical research naturally leads backward from a known and given ancestor in family history, to the earliest source of name and lineage, and thence forward mid the growing and wide-spreading branches of the Tree, to the latest living generation of descendants, even though it re quires every letter in the alphabet to furnish initials for their surnames. The laudable purpose of such research should ever be, not merely for Family pride, but the sincere desire to preserve both for living and future generations, names and deeds, ex amples worthy of emulation in the making of a country's his tory in the day in which they lived.