Kenneth Nixon

Yes, they are the same... I accidentally added John Nixon (8156), when I was going in to add Matilda Ann (Nixon) Jewison's parents, and then her siblings, too... which is when I found that you had already entered a profile for him. It turned out that 3 of the kids had already been entered, but only you had created a profile for the parents... but I was still lacking enough info at the time.

The Nixons of Fermanagh are also my ancestors... but my direct Nixon ancestors came to USA sometime around 1745-1750, but I don't know which of the colonies, yet. About 30 years of research into the Nixon family informs my "gut" that ALL of the Nixons who lived in Northern Ireland (Ulster) and Ireland (1600's-1800's) all descended from the same group. Note... that includes the Roman Catholic Nixons of NI/RoI. From there, it follows that all Nixons who left *Ireland* for various parts... Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and even South Africa are "cousins" to some degree. This especially includes ALL of the Nixons in and around your Peterborough. Also the Hamilton and Wentworth areas... just to name a couple "off the top of my head".

Do you know how "big a thing" nepotism was back around the 1700's and earlier? Well, the Nixons got involved in trade, probably through marriage to the Hassard and/or French families, both of which are mentioned in that book by Rev. Swanzy. My working theory is that many Nixons immigrated to all over the North American Atlantic seaboard not only to gain land to farm, but *also* to spread out their "merchant empire". For example, two of my own direct ancestors were "teamsters" who freighted cargo (by wagon) from the port at Charleston, South Carolina to their own places of residence in Augusta, Georgia, and later in Tennessee.

There are a pair of Nixon brothers who left Canada, probably Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, and ended up in Charleston SC about 1830-1840.

Here's one that might interest you more than most... There's an Allen Nixon who married a Catherine Wright, and lived in New Jersey. Before that, they were from Ireland. Here is Allen: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Nixon-1567 Some of Allen's kids remained loyal during our revolution, and migrated up into Canada circa 1780. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Allen was something like a grand-uncle to your John Nixon, and Catherine something similar to your Sarah Wright.

The Nixons of Ireland are related to the Border Reiver Clan... but were also spread out across much of England, even in the 1500-1600's. They were, and seem to remain, thickest along the Southern side of the English-Scottish border, in Cumberland and Northumberland. My branch carries the "Invader Gene"... Scandinavian ancestry, on the male side. You and I are distant cousins, as I suspected... we share 3 segments for 14.7 cM, with the longest being 6.2... just barely short of the usual 7cM threshold to show up in matchlists... if I'd tested at Ancestry, which I didn't. The other 2 segments are 4.6 and 3.9. (My GedMatch ID is on this page, so that you can see for yourself, but you'll need to lower that threshold to 3 to see the matches, due to the distance in generations since we could have shared a common ancestor.)

All for now, but if you ever have any questions about the Nixons, feel free to drop a PM.

Ken.

You're welcome... My Nixon ancestors also left Fermanagh, so we are almost certainly cousins through them. Frankly, I'm almost certain that ALL Nixons who were in Ireland at that time are related to us... come from the same branch. My own branch left, probably, sometime between about 1700-1770, so at least 100 years before yours My own line was here in USA (Colonies) in time to rebel against King George in 1775... and another cousin line (also from Ireland) arrived in time to fight against him in 1812. I lost a couple of my great-something grand-uncles in our Civil War, so I can certainly understand why your own ancestors chose to go to Australia instead of coming here! We've also got, as you probably expect, ancestral cousins in South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand, some of whom I've been in touch with over the years, sharing information.. My oldest known Nixon ancestors were a John and Eleanor Nixon, who had at least two kids, a John Nixon and a "Hamilton Nixon", from Ireland, most likely County Fermanagh. The elder John and wife Eleanor came to the States/Colonies, leaving the children with John's parents, but were later reunited... I *think* with John's parents (the kids' grandparents) also.

The "Hamilton Nixon" probably indicates that his mother, or grandmother, was likely a daughter of the Hamilton line.

There's a book you should take a look at, which you can download in PDF form for free from archive.org. "The Families of French of Belturbet and Nixon of Fermangh and Their Descendants" I believe you'll find more of your Nixon ancestors in there, as it was published about 1900... at least one of your George Nixons. The author was a distant cousin, a Rev. Henry Biddall Swanzy. Swanzy traced many of the branches back to a George (?) Nixon and his wife Marianne French. Most of it is pretty dry reading, but there are a few interesting stories One of those stories which you might find interesting is that one of our ancestral cousins married a daughter of an Alexander Montgomery. AM had disowned a son for an unapproved marriage. That son then went on to father a son/grandson who later led the American invasion of Canada in 1775. In turn, the son-in-law, the Nixon who had married AM's daughter, went on to become AM's heir... and changed his children's surname to Montgomery, and I'm 95% certain that line later led to Field Marshall Montgomery, as it appears that AM's property was later inherited by Monty's parents when he was a kid. If you do download the book, I'd recommend that you pay attention to various surnames of the spouses, as it will probably help you to understand the results of your own DNA test... the surnames of the people in your match-list.

Thank you for taking the time to add your family. I was glad to bridge the gap between your Ezra Nixon.

If you look at your tree and mine, you won't find any common Nixons, but they exist... I just don't know exactly HOW... meaning which one(s) and when... The best I can do right now is put it back in Ireland, most likely County Fermanagh, which then (probably) means between 1600-1750. More, I'm thinking that both of our separate (but related) Nixon ancestors left Ireland about the same time... circa 1750. Yours immigrated to Delaware/Maryland area, while mine most likely arrived at South Carolina, probably Charleston.

We've got quite a few ancestral Nixon cousins who fought in the Rev. War... including one who fought on the other side and requested to be transferred ELSEWHERE so as not to have to fight against his cousins. Interestingly, his request was granted and he was transferred to West Indies.

It's possible that they are the same, but they have different birth and death dates, and PoD's, too. I didn't create those profile... I just adopted them after they were abandoned... MORE to the substance of your question, however, is that I've got at least one other family of Nixons, living in USA, back around 1850, where they had both a John and a Jonathan living in the house at the same time... neither of them the father. and both John and Jon were right ages to be the kids...

Is this the Francis Marion Nixon who lived in (Mulberry?) Arkansas very late in his life? Married, if I remember correctly, a Catherine Elliott? If so... I look forward to hearing about Russ's DNA results, as I believe we're cousins, but have no proof as yet. He will be, I think, the first NIXON male from FMN's line to be tested... ARE YOU HAVING Y-DNA done? Or Autosomal? (Y-DNA goes further back in time than autosomal DNA.)

I've researched his line quite a bit, even though I don't yet know if he's connected to my own line, since FMN appears to be yet another one of those "brick walls", where no one has, as of yet, been able to identify his father. Even if we never learn that, at least we might be able to tie his line in with the others who are related.

For my own line, I've got most of my paternal (Nixon) line posted here at WikiTree. My second oldest Nixon was a John Nixon, born in 1763, died in 1821 or 1822. John's father was a Robert Nixon. Both John and Robert fought in the Rev. War, according to John's Rev. War pension application. Robert's line came to the US (Colonies) from Ulster, Ireland, and before that, from the Nixon Clan who lived on the western coast of England and Scotland, near to, and on, both sides of the Scottish-English border.

As for DNA test, I've had one done myself, and researched every line of Nixons that came up as a match, as well as several who didn't.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer them.

All for now, Ken.