I would encourage you to take the newer DNA test that's available, because my father's side has Nickersons though it isn't in his Y-DNA strand, and most of our matches in that tree have been on the wive's sides (people who married Nickersons).
That's probably because his Y that matches the name is already taken by his last name ancestors. In your case, if you're a Y-Nickerson, you may pick up last names of the women who married them, and be able to plot your line a little more closely. The new test doesn't tell you which name is matching the DNA, however, it's guesswork.
It seems to have a larger database of participants, as well. I get between 10 and 20 matches per week; some can be figured out and some can't. (Some do not let you see their trees, which is very frustrating).
I set it to find even very distant matches and it has.

Most were sailors, it was a primary occupation near the coasts.
Good luck in solving your mystery!

I have a similar mystery trying to learn those in Dad's Y-tree further back. I've got a second tree going with that family name, and have picked up many maiden names of women who are clues to his ancestry, but it isn't solid proof unless and until Ancestry is able to map the strand to the name.