Pursuing the Dixons of Ryedale

Pursuing the Dixons of Ryedale - Part 4

Now that i know the father of Thomas Dixon was Francis Dixon i can begin to further flesh out the family tree. Whether Francis was born in Helmsley remains up for research. However, of a certainty, he died there and was certainly living there for some time. Let's look at the established facts.

I remain confident this is when he died

I obtained a copy of a very important document only in the last day or two. This was a "population study" of around six towns within the Ryedale. Contained within was a survey of the town undertaken in 1823.

1823 survey front page

Ad hoc and impromptu surveys such as this are absolutely priceless to family historians and genealogical researchers such as myself and they help corrobate anecdotal evidence or surmisings and assumptions. This was no exception. Within its pages i came across a set of data that has already been sent to me by my cousin who has conducted this research. At least i know now where he got it from.

John and Francis Dixon

Now, i have been told that these are two brothers. Whether this is true or not is hard to gauge but, given he died in Helmsley just seven years later, and that his son Thomas was born here we can be at least sure of this [Francis] individual. A search of John's of a similar age can hopefully help us confirm a father and mother to Francis. We shall see.

We know that Francis was certainly living in Helmsley at the turn of the century by virtue of the birth of his son. Intriguingly i came across other Dixon children born to Francis with the mother's name being given as Mary Proud (or Prowde). If you look back at the image above - you will see several houses down a house owned by John Proud. He had a daughter called Mary. The times work.

Mary Proud, born 1783

See where i am going with this? However this is not backed up with much other than circumstantial evidence at best.

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Tracking down Frank Bloxham - Part 1

Frank Bloxham has no direct connection to me as such - however, his likely son, Frank Henry Simms does indeed carries the genes of my 2nd great-aunt Charlotte Simms. I contacted a descendant of the family of Frank Henry Simms and passed the information i had over. I decided to take a closer look at this individual. To uncover the story behind the article and to track his movements after - and also, his origins. He was commonly called "Frank" (as such many were) but was born Francis A Bloxham . Francis Bloxham - 6 years old in the 1881 census. Like many families in Brailes there were common groups of families. The Bloxhams were quite a unique name and not as common compared to others. Brailes being as small as it was - and still is - it remains comparatively easy to track them around. Whilst working for a grocer in the following census he met Charlotte Simms. 1891 census. Francis was working as a grocers apprentice and Charlotte as a general servant (domestic).

Charlotte Simms, her son born out of wedlock, and who the probable father was.

As i go through my family tree i often mark down individuals for further consideration, especially if they are not priority research targets, and especially if initial research yields little. One such person was Charlotte Simms . I came across her when i was filling out the family of my 2nd great-grandfather William Simms. I found her, and marked her down with her year of birth, which was 1876 and in Brailes. I tend not to go into huge detail on indirect descendants of my connections straight away - and, even less so, those that are daughters. These can be, and are, explored at a later date. However i came across a curious article about a young girl called Charlotte Simms who simply had to be the same person. The story, published on the 14th of April 1892, and warranted deeper investigation. Article published 14th of April 1892 She was making a case against a young boy called Frank Bloxham that he was the father of her son born just a couple of months before on the 2nd of Jun

Standard Offering - Sample Output

I wanted to give an example of what can be expected for a standard offering. I was able to turn around the following, with appropriate citations (from BMD / census records) fairly quickly. The standard offering is a "no frills" 5 generation family tree ( your great great grandparents ). All i required was whatever information could be provided to me. To produce this tree the client gave me his name and birthday, his parents names and birthdates and his grandparents names. This may not be possible in every case - or more could be provided - but it is usually enough to do the job. There is also no guarantee that a tree can be filled out entirely. In this case it was. In the interest of confidentiality - the client, and his, parents are not included in the below screenshots. I loaded this .GED file into ancestry.co.uk to demonstrate, if you like, that you are able to continue the research yourself. The standard offering can be a good primer and start point for that. On the

Dixon and Simms Family History Blog

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