Number of Kids per Generation

 I recently worked on a listing of the children of George Dixon’s and Della Fisher Dixon’s siblings. I met several of them in Albion in 2008, and had briefly documented some of their lives when I  realized they had passed. These are the cousins of my dad, Jerry Dixon. I had previously written about my Dixon cousins, the “boomer” generation.

Afterward, I realized there was a definite decrease in the size of the cousins cohorts. My dad’s generation mostly grew up during the Great Depression. Some, but not most, served in WW II. So partly the Greatest Generation! Here’s a summary:

(the number indicates the number of children)

Mabel Fisher Reid 3

Vera Fisher Elliott 3

Emily Fisher Smerdon 4

Ina Fisher Shilling 2

Alice Dixon Wick 3

Stella Dixon Frankland 6

Loren Dixon 0

Sadie Dixon Glover 4

Herman Dixon 0

Lucy Dixon Perkins 4

George and Della Fisher Dixon 4

So, my dad had 12 Fisher cousins and 17 Dixon cousins. Adding in the 4 kids in his own family, there were 33 cousins in the cohort. This is despite the fact that Herman and Loren Dixon died before becoming parents.

In contrast, I was one of 13 kids at Dixon family gatherings in the 1960’s and I also had 4 Wellons cousins on my mom’s side for a total of 17 cousins in my boomer cohort.