The Nickerson Family Association was formed in 1897 by William Emery Nickerson, a native of Chatham, to trace the descendants of William and Anne Busby Nickerson, the first Nickersons in the colonies and the first English settlers of Chatham. The Association is a 501C3 charitable and educational non-profit corporation and one of the oldest non-profit organizations on Cape Cod.

William Emery Nickerson became a prominent Boston businessman and is known as the inventor of the Gillette Safety Razor. In 1897, he sent out an invitation to all Nickersons to join him in Chatham to hold a family reunion. It was a huge success and it received strong media attention from a number of newspapers, including the Boston Globe. That reunion not only spurred the creation of the Association but continues to this day with the 115th Annual Nickerson Family Reunion to be held in September of this year in Chatham.

The Association maintains an enormous archive of genealogical records, including those researched by William Emery Nickerson and continuing with research being undertaken to this day. There are four published volumes of “The Nickerson Family: The Descendants of William Nickerson (1604-1689) First Settler of Chatham, Massachusetts” as well as a number of published pamphlets regarding Nickerson ancestors. It is estimated that more than ninety-five percent of the Nickersons in North America are descended from the first Nickersons of Chatham.

During the past half century, the genealogy research of the Association was led by Pauline Wixon Derick (a Nickerson descendant) and then her sons, Burton and Elbert. Today, the Association’s Genealogy Committee directs the research and each Wednesday, volunteers are at our Genealogy Center - The Nickerson House - continuing the work started 115 years ago. The Association has quickly moved into the digital age. All our records have been scanned into digital format and an on-line digital genealogy data base is available to Association members. The Nickerson Family Association is known as one of the largest and most active family-based genealogy organization in the United States and one of the very few with its own facilities.