Harry Dixon

The missing children of William A. and Mary E. (Klein) Dixon

From the 1909 Birth Certificate of Hazel Dixon

According to the 1900 United States Census (1)  my great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (Klein) Dixon had given birth to seven children, with five surviving. By 1909, when her last child, Hazel, was born the birth certificate (2) indicates that she had given birth to ten children, with seven surviving.

This leaves three children unaccounted for.

A recent visit to the FamilySearch web site brought up a birth record for Harry Dixon, born 29 December 1887 in Union County, New Jersey. His parents are listed as "Wm. Dixon" and "Eliz. Kline." (3)

Harry Dixon is not a name that I have come across before.

The 1890 U.S. Census, which was destroyed, would have been the next likely place to find him. He is absent from the 1895 New Jersey State Census. That census lists Minnie, William C., Clara Viola, and John Frank as the children in the family.

So Harry Dixon died sometime between his birth on 29 December 1887 and the date the 1895 NJ State Census was taken.

He is not listed in a search of NJ death records through the New Jersey State Archives web search. (But I do come up with a Walter Dixon, who died on 11 September 1891 at just 7 hours old. He might belong to another Dixon family. A subject of another search.)

 It's probable that Harry is one of the two Dixon children who died prior to 1900.

At some point between 1900 and 1909 another child was born and died, if the information on Hazel Dixon's birth certificate is correct.


To-Do List

• Find death record for Harry Dixon
• Order death record for Walter Dixon to see if he is from this family
• Keep looking for the other missing children

Citations

1. 1900 U.S. Census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, 5th Ward, enumeration district (ED) 102, Sheet Number 7, dwelling 83, family 180, William A. Dixon; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 5 March 2015); United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

2. Hazel Dorothy L. Dixon, birth certificate 79 (16 January 1909), Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, New Jersey.

3. "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZCZ-MJD : accessed 14 February 2016), Harry Dixon, 29 Dec 1887; citing Union County, New Jersey, reference ; FHL microfilm 494,209.