Pursuing the Dixons of Ryedale

Pursuing the Dixons of Ryedale - Part 3

Its taken me a while but i have finally found the birth of Thomas Dixon. It wasn't easily available as the records of baptisms are not always actually held in findmypast / ancestry, etc. I had been able to obtain the literal parish records for Lastingham, Kirkbymoorside (and others) and could never find the birth of Thomas Dixon. It was most perplexing. It was quite possible he was from somewhere else though the evidence was compelling that he was from somewhere local (see below). Movements are rarely so striking and distant... and we find they are much more gradual and measured. As Helmsley featured prominently within the family i sought to at least rule it out. Trouble is Helmsley parish records are not available on FMP or ancestry. They are held in a single location - somewhere else. I couldn't even download them. As soon as i went to this site i found him there immediately!

A birth record held somewhere i could never previously find it.

He was born in April 1803 in Helmsley to Francis Dixon. He was shown as being from Kirkbymoorside in the 1820's when he married his wife Mary Cook in Lastingham. They stayed in Lastingham for quite some time and all of their children were born there (including two twins - a boy and a girl). By the time the 1841 census happened they were all in York. I do not know what drew him there but i am strongly assuming that his work had something to do with it. It explains why John Dixon spent the rest of his life in York not far from where he spent his teenage years. Someone had to make that move from Ryedale into York and it was Thomas it seems.

Tragically though Thomas died sometime around the mid to late 1840's - in York. His wife ended up remarrying in 1848 a one William Keech (originally from Bedfordshire). The exact date of Thomas' death eludes me but i have found speculative deaths, in York, around mid to late 1846 (putting him around the 43 years old mark). The dates play out very well. This also explains why we never see him in the census reports ever again.

This (finally) gives me a solid foundation to find his father Francis Dixon and continue on.

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