What began as a curiosity has continued for more than thirty years as a yearning to understand from whom and from where I descend. My ancestry has served to shape and mold who I am today. In the 1970s while I was visiting my grandmother (Vina Geneva Dixon Ward), a woman stopped by to ask my grandmother the locations of several families in the area. She was researching her family history. There began my curiosity. When the woman left, I grabbed pen and paper and began to quiz my grandmother about her history, and about as much of my grandfather's (John App Ward) history as she could remember. From there I began to ask other family members more and more questions. This information, provided by my grandmother, my parents (William Jacob Nelson and Mattie Jewell Ward Pevey Nelson), and my aunts (Euna Catherine Nelson Kyzar and Edna Louvinia Nelson Davis), resulted in my first crude attempt as a teenager to record my family history.

Through the more than thirty years since I made that first record, I have taken up and laid aside this curiosity many times. Naively I believed that I could take it up again at any time and pick up where I left off. Sadly, most of my valuable resources have passed away and I truly regret that I did not glean more from them when I had the chance.

My goal is to record as much of my history as I can through whatever means are available. If you have information about Nelson, Ward, Rutland, or Dixon families in and around Lawrence County, Mississippi, I would love to hear from you. Also, I would be happy to share my information with you.