This book is dedicated to Louise A. Johnson May 21, 1899 - January 18, 1999 "Old rocking chair breaking down." You would not be reading this book, where it not for the initial efforts of my mother, Louise Amelia Johnson (nee Dixon), who instigated and encouraged this never-ending search to identify and to locate members of the Dixon family of Albert Town in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica. According to Louise, or "Aunt Lou" or "Granny" as she was affectionately known, her grandfather was George Joshua Dickson, who with his brother William, sailed from Scotland to Jamaica in about 1860. (Perhaps they disembarked at Falmouth, which was then Jamaica's major shipping port.) There, George and William "jumped ship". George settled in the relatively isolated Cockpit Country of Upper Trelawny Parish. It's safe to assume that George settled in that area since jumping ship was not taken lightly -- it was punishable by death. William reportedly settled in Hanover Parish and nothing is known of his whereabouts or activities thereafter. Louise was born on May 21, 1899 in Albert Town, Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, the eighth of 10 children born to Nethland Stoney and Avis Phenice Dixon (nee Abrams). In 1918 she decided to leave her family home and to immigrate to the United States where she believed, she later recalled, the streets were paved with gold! By wagon to Balaclava, by train to Kingston, and by the ship S.S. Almarante, Louise immigrated to the United States where she arrived at New York City's Ellis Island just three days before the end of hostilities of World War Years later, while applying for citizenship, she learned that this was the S.S. Almarante's maiden voyage and that on its return voyage it was sunk by a German submarine.) She immediately joined her sister, Edith Dixon, and her cousin, Hilda Jackson (nee Dixon) in Boston. Later she married Clarence L. Johnson, of Falmouth, Jamaica and together they raised their three children, the late Calvin L. Johnson of Los Angeles, CA, Eleanor L. Redway of Los Angeles, CA, and Lloyd A. Johnson, of Takoma Park, Maryland. Louise became an active member of Boston's Jamaican community and was a founding member of Roxbury's historic St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church. In 1949, by then a single parent, she relocated to Brooklyn, New York. Upon her retirement in 1967, she joined her daughter, Eleanor, and Eleanor's family in Los Angeles, where she enjoyed the sunset years of her life traveling to Jamaica, Europe, and Hawaii. She regularly returned to visit her family on the East Coast. A deep Christian faith, family, education and a strong work ethic were my mother's core values. She never forgot her humble beginnings, sponsored countless nieces and nephews who sought to become permanent residents of the United States, and provided moral and financial support to others in their educational efforts. Louise took special pride in her seven grandchildren, 14 great- grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. While declining health prevented her from traveling to Jamaica for the 1996 Dixon Family Reunion, she made a substantial contribution to St. Andrew's Anglican Church, the family church in Albert Town. Following a long and debilitating illness, Louise quietly and peacefully slipped home to our Lord on January 18, 1999 in Los Angeles, California.. Several years earlier, Ma told me that upon her death, she wanted a few close family members and friends to be her guests at a sit-down dinner where we could be waited upon, enjoy a few glasses of wine and "tell nice stories about me". On the evening before her burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California, the family gathered at a wonderful restaurant overlooking Los Angeles and we did just that!