It all started in the kitchen of my mother’s house in Shannon on a Sunday afternoon in the Spring of 1998. I was visiting with my wife Theresa, son Ian and some of my brothers and sisters were there. My mother was recounting stories of the war years, the nightly London blitz, meeting my father, falling in love and the deep sorrow when he was killed in Sicily. Tales of the blackout, bomb shelters, ration books, the struggle to survive, the funny moments and the sad moments.
They were all there – the Dodson’s, the Robinsons, the Smiths and the Jones, the family intrigues, the births and the marriages, and the dates recalled with the precision of Big Ben striking the hour! Suddenly someone said “All of this will be lost if we don’t write it down”. I got a sheet of my mother’s notepaper and I recorded the first few names and dates. The Dodson Family Tree was born!
For several years it was left aside, a page added here, a name added there. However trips to Yaxley England, Canada and Southern Italy, where I knelt beside my father’s grave for the first time, have started me on an exhilarating journey into the past. What started as a collection of names and dates has come alive, for these are real people, my people, who experienced the same emotions, dreams, joys and sorrows as you and me. I hope that my children’s children will make this voyage of discovery with me. To contact me, please e-mail ian at iandodson dot com.
When Theresa and I visited Canada I was excited about meeting my Dodson aunts and cousins who I had not seen for many 
When Theresa and I were in London in 2004 we visited my mother’s first cousin Don Jones in Dagenham. This led to a contact with Don’s brother David who was also researching his own family history. Since then we have been in contact by e-mail sharing information on the Jones family. David has carried out most of his research on the ground in London, which he has shared with me, while I have had the benefit of my mother’s memories of her mother (Elizabeth Jones) and great grandparents (George Jones and Emma Jane Collins). My mother’s collection of photographs has also helped to fill in the gaps. I have yet to meet David Jones and we hope to get together when I am in London in Sept.
Margaret brought us to St Peter’s Church where we met Church Warden Stephen who gave us an expert insight into the history of this fine building. We viewed the baptismal font where so many Dodson children were baptised over a period of a hundred years. When we left Margaret it was with regret and with an invitation to come and visit us in Ireland. We will meet again.
While on holidays in the UK Theresa and I visited Bath on Sat 24th Sept 05. We followed the directions given by James and having parked the car we met James Dodson on the street. He brought us back to his appartment on the ground floor of one of those magnificent Bath terraces. He opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the meeting of two branches of the Dodson family after a period of over a century. We then spent several hours exchanging family information and found that James is 67 and has 4 children. He grew up in Thrapston in Northamptonshire and his father Samuel Warren Dodson died when he was 8 months old. His grandfather Samuel Dodson was a brother of Florence Dodson my great grandmother. James is a zoologist who has retired from lecturing for some years and is pursueing his interests in archaeology and history. He provided lunch in his appartment which we thoroughly enjoyed. Theresa was impressed by the beautiful sash window with working shutters which looked out over a green with the river beyond. Having recorded our meeting on camera we took our leave. Thank you James for your hospitality and we look forward to you coming to Ireland to stay with us possibly in May next year. I know we will return to Bath. A great Dodson family day all due to Margaret Long in Yaxley who put me in touch with James. Thank you Margaret.
Dodson Family Tree 