Hi thank you for all the replies,
I have plenty on Nixon jnr ( b 1866) jnr himself, including his addresses, all certs,army and air force records etc. , (also have a photo of him and his wife off my mum, it was originally off his son, from my grandfather's possessions). Nixon looks the spit of my grandfather. My mum always said you could spot the Grahams , as they all looked like each other! According to my mum there were loads of them, G uncles, cousins of hers etc around Ballymoney , she forgot all their names - my mum knew her grandfather Nixon jnr and can remember him quite well, he died when she was a small child, she had a load of rellies in Ballymoney, but didn't know their names, except that they look like each other
,)
It is Nixon junior's father, Nixon (and mother Ellen Townsley) that is the mystery, I only have their names off their own marriage, the marriages and births of their children, also Griffiths valuation in the early 60's , no deaths for either him or Ellen and nothing reported in the newspapers of him that I have found (perhaps he kept his nose clean), but he must have died somewhere...
Hi Colin, I would say your William is a son of Nixon senior, I have not found another person named Nixon of that time with an occupation of tinsmith in the area, and even in the whole of Ireland (except his son Nixon jnr of course who was also a tinsmith. My grandfather's brother was also called Nixon, but he wasn't a tinsmith, trade died out )
Colin, I can give you another birth of a child to Nixon and Ellen before civil reg.
George Graham born abt *1857 ish to 1860 who was also a tinsmith like his father (I haven't found a baptism for him, just his two marriage certs and censuses to go on for his abt age - his second marriage to Annie and 1901 census put him born around /1859/1860, around the same age as your William, but the 1911 census he has put his age as 54, so he was born about 1857 on this document)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Ballymoney__Urban__and_Ballymoney_Urban_District/Castle_Street/1008695/http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Ballymoney/Castle_Street/125355/He married 2nd Jan 1880 (he was of full age, so this document puts his birth before 1860, his bride was 19yrs old) in Ballymoney parish church
his bride was Margaret Ann Alexander.
No Graham witnesses on either of the marriage certs, father Nixon a tinsmith.
they had 6 children ( William Jas 1882, Margaret 1885,Ellen 1887,Mary Jane 1889, Rebecca 1891 and George b1893 d1918 in France)
His wife Margaret died in 25 dec 1896
George married a second time 2 Aug 1899 to Annie Lamont and had more children (Minnie 1900, Annie 1902, Robert 1903) , his age on his second marriage was 40 ( and this document puts his age about 1858/1859)
Annie his wife died 5th April 1905
I think George born abt 1857ish to 1860 may be the oldest of Nixon's and Ellen's male children as Nixon father was a George according to his marriage cert ( Nixon and Ellen married in the reg office in Ballymoney- Both were spinster and bachelor and of full age, so I don't why they married in the reg office and not in the Parish Church...maybe Ellen was of a different religion, who knows) .
Nixon senior may have named his first born after his father George, but of course that doesn't always happen( and your William may be the oldest of the children and not George) , as Nixon's son( Nixon jnr) did not name his eldest Nixon after his father and himself. He gave his youngest but one the Nixon name - so no naming order patterns with him, just to confuse things.
The boys John(69 and 70) are probably named after Ellen Townsely's father ( Ellen's father is a John)
my grandfather(Nixon jnr son) also had a brother called William (he went by the name Billy ), so the name William is definitely in the tree somewhere.
Kind Regards