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I have an old photo of my Husbands Great Grandfather, he is wearing some sort of sash around his neck that points to a V. The sash has the letters on the right side of the V PPCM or PPGM on the left side of the V there are some other letters but i can't make them out. He is also wearing a huge medal around his neck and a smaller one is attached to the V sash (the smaller one i am assuming he got from WW1) He was born in Sunderland 1860 and his name was Matthew Nixon. Can anyone tell me what the letter on the sash mean or what he could have been attached to? Many Thanks, Annie

See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/search-results.asp?searchtype=browserefine&query=first_name%3dmatthew%7clast_name%3dnixon&catid=10&pagenumber=1&querytype=1&mediaarray=* There are 4 men called Matthew Nixon.Do you know his regiment/corps? One of them was in the Northumberland Fusiliers. As for the PPGM this may indicate that he was a freemason, or an Oddfellow, a Provincial Grand Master. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael

Hi Michael Thanks very much for your help, i will look at the site. sorry its taken me a while to get back, but we keep getting power cuts and its causing my computer to keep crashing. Annie

Hi Here he is in 1861 Matthew Nixon Age: 1 Estimated birth year: abt 1860 Relation: Son Father's name: Matthew Mother's name: Sarah Gender: Male Where born: Sunderland, Durham, England Civil parish: Sunderland Town: Sunderland County/Island: Durham Country: England Street address: Occupation: Condition as to marriage: View image Registration district: Sunderland Sub-registration district: West Sunderland ED, institution, or vessel: 5 Neighbors: View others on page Household schedule number: 262 Household Members: Name Age Matthew Nixon 34 Matthew Nixon 1 Sarah Nixon 27 Sarah H Nixon 7 View Original Record View original image View blank form Save This Record Attach this record to a person in your tree as a source record, or save for later evaluation. Save Source Citation: Class: RG9; Piece: 3780; Folio: 67; Page: 49; GSU roll: 543186.

Hi Elizabeth your right, sorry i wasn't thinking (i was so excited about getting the photo, i didn't really think about what war it was and put WW1) I can't read the end of your message as i've got the adverts to the right covering it up. My history is awful, so can you please tell me what wars he could have been in from about 1775? In the picture, he looks about 60 ish Many Thanks Whiskey - thank you, yes that is him on the census Annie

Elizabeth You are a star, Thank you so much for taking the time to research this. i'm on the page now for the oddfellows, i will take a look around and see if i can find anything else out. Thank you again Annie

Elizabeth I have received a reply from the oddfellows and this is what they have said:- I regret to say the Society has no central file or archive of members. Members dealt with their own respective Branches in terms of the financial benefits (sickness, death, distress and so on), and Branches were under no obligation to maintain past records. The opening and closure of Branches, reflecting shifts in population over the years, mean records have, in many cases, been moved. A large number have been lost in the process. Any information we might have had would typically have been records of payments received from and made to the individual member, and this may not be particularly illuminating when trying to build a picture of an ancestor. Based on the description of the sash, all I can say about Matthew Nixon is that he was a Past Provincial Grand Master (i.e. former District Chairman) which was and still is an elected position, typically for a period of one year. Most likely he would have served a total of three years as a District Officer – the first year as Deputy PGM, the second year as PGM, and the third year as Immediate Past PGM. Your husband’s great-grandfather would therefore have been held in some esteem to have been elected to such a position. I’m sorry, but that’s as much information as we can provide. Good luck with your research. Elizabeth, Again, MANY MANY THANKS for all your help and to the other peeps who kindly helped me on this thread Annie