Dr Nicholas Dixon

12/05/2026

In the latest issue of The London Library magazine, there is an interview with me by Katie Armstrong. In this article, I explain how exploring my own family history inspired me to pursue a career as a professional genealogist and how the library's rich collections help me to conduct research for clients. Although most genealogical research is now carried out online or using original documents, there is still an enormous amount that can be gained (and time that can be saved) by locating relevant literature that preserves the knowledge of past generations.

27/04/2026

I was really delighted to participate and speak at the Register of Qualified Genealogists conference (entitled 'Exploring the Past, Embracing the Future') held in Birmingham on Saturday. I gave a presentation about my various ancestors and relatives who were freemasons in England, beginning with the 5x great-grandfather James Flowerday (a sea captain), discussing (among others) my great-great-grandfather William Dixon (a ship's cook) and great-grandfather Charles William Dixon (an electrical engineer), and concluding with my grandfather William Herbert Jefferson (an Anglican priest). The presentation covered around two centuries of masonic ancestry, and drew extensively upon the fascinating records at the Museum of Freemasonry, where I have been conducting a great deal of research in the past three years.

As a director of RQG, it was a very great pleasure to see so many members of our organisation as well as non-members meeting in one place, united by their shared passion and commitment to high-quality genealogical research. I am confident that we can build upon the success of this conference, which was a superb reflection of the efforts of our organisers during the past two years, and of the valuable expertise that qualified genealogists can offer both to the general public and to the academic world.

02/02/2026

I am really delighted to be presenting a paper at the Register of Qualified Genealogists conference in Birmingham on Saturday 25th April (details below). I will be talking about ancestors who were freemasons in England between the 1790s and the 1970s.

The discovery of records about an ancestor who was initiated as a freemason in 1798 has been the starting point for a fascinating voyage of discovery involving a number of other family members who were freemasons during the 19th and 20th centuries. I have consistently found that the masonic records held at the Museum of Freemasonry in London and elsewhere can shed a surprising light upon various ancestors that is unobtainable from the more standard genealogical records. My presentation will use my own family history as a prism through which to view the multifarious contexts in which the freemasons were active, from Napoleonic-era King’s Lynn to Victorian London to post-war County Durham.

We can add the following two names to our list of speakers for the RQG Conference in Birmingham (25 April 2026): David Ryan and Nicholas Dixon!
Registration is open: https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/2026-conference