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Thread: Hello friends!

  1. #1

    Default Hello friends!

    I'm new to British Genealogy, but have spent time over the last 25 years attempting to trace my ancestry. I've been told I descend from William Francis, who helped in the retaking of Edinburgh Castle in 1314. I've been able to trace the surname Francis back to Redruth, Cornwall. The oldest record I've been able to locate is for my fifth great grandfather, one John Francis, born about 1701, married 1726 to Ann Nicholls and died in 1746. That leaves a lot of years between 1314 and 1701.

    I'm a father of two and grandfather of three. I own a small patch of land in the northwest corner of Washington State, in the US. I'm currently employed as a Registered nurse, working primarily with psychiatric patients and those with opiate and alcohol addictions.

    I seem to have run into a bit of a wall with John Francis and can find nothing stateside that might indicate who his parents might have been.

    It appears several generations of the Francis family lived in Cornwall. My grandfather, James (b.1860 or 1868) was the first American Francis in this line. So now I must search elsewhere. Thank you for having me!

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Default

    Welcome to the British-Genealogy forums

    You are not alone in not being able to get back beyond the 1700's in your research and some of us have difficulty getting back beyond the 1800's.
    May I suggest you choose a suitable forum (Cornwall or brickwalls?) and give us all the information you have on the definite, earliest of your Francis line. Is it your grandfather James born 1860 or 1868. Do you have a marriage record for him for example/
    Our sleuths will be happy to help move further back but back to the 1300's would need a very well defined paper trail and those are very scarce unless for the nobility and even then inaccuracies can creep in.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  3. #3

    Default

    Thanks for the advice. Very much appreciate it!

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