The Nelson Family: The Descendants of Nils and Margaret Matson and their son Anthony Nelson (Antti Niilonpoika)

Robert Nelson has been an avid genealogist since the age of ten. He was privileged to have had four great-grandparents alive until he was well into his teens and at an early age began interviewing them and other relatives for family history. In addition to researching his own family, he has taught genealogy classes for the LDS Church. He grew up in western Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas where he became an Eagle Scout. After high school he attended college and eventually earned degrees in Asian Studies, Psychology, and Counseling - including a PhD. He has been a field hand, bill collector, repo man, loan officer, and restaurant manager. He has also been a missionary to Korea, a Marine Corps Officer, an Army chaplain, a crisis worker, counselor, clinical director of a mental health agency, director of a social service agency, and college instructor. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and authorized supervisor. He is also a mountain climber, sailor, musician, linguist, poet, and magician. He speaks and reads several languages and studied several others. He has walked on fire, and has performed a number of magic shows. His interests are wide and varied and include history, psychology, the occult, languages, Asia, and many other fields of study. His publications include poetry, magazine articles, journal articles and books. His articles have addressed such varied subjects as Middle English, public speaking, politics, family history, missiology, chaplains, epistemology, and history. Among his books are a book on suicide prevention, Finnish Magic (Llewellyn), and Enemy of the Saints which is the biography of Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri. The book on Finnish Magic actually grew out of his genealogical interests and his discovery that his ancestor Margaret Matson was tried for witchcraft by William Penn.