The Francis Line comes to our family with my maternal grandmother Etta Jane Francis (b. 1889, California) who was one of two daughters of Gilmore C. (b. 1864, California) and Caroline (Batson) (b. 1866, Ohio) Francis. Gilmore’s parents were George Washington Francis (b. 1832, Ohio) and Clementine Shipp (b. 1848, Louisiana). Gilmore had eight brothers and sisters. George Washington Francis was one of 12 children born to William Henry Francis (b. 1798, Virginia) and Susannah Holmes (b.1806, Virginia). William Henry was the eldest of 9 children born to Joseph Francis (b. 1770, Maryland) and Sabitha (Tabitha) Holmes (b. 1775, Virginia). Joseph had an older brother Thomas and their Father was Andrew Francis (b. abt. 1740, Maryland, d. 1804 in Virginia) their mother is unknown at this time. My sister has done all this research on the Francis line. While much is sited in the Francis Family of Fauquier County Virginia ¹ we knew that some of the information was incorrect, therefore Madeleine has done due diligence in verifying the information.

If you click on the names underlined it will take you to a previous post about that person.

In sorting out my files on the Francis line I tried to see if I could place George Washington in a 1860 US Census. We have him in all the other available census plus the California voter registers from 1866 forward. A historical biographical sketch was given in History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California ² for George W. Francis.

Also about the same time (1859) he removed to a cattle ranch not far from Visalia, where eventually he gained control of four thousand acres and had large herds of cattle grazing on the plains…….At Visalia in 1860 ³, Mr. Francis married Clementine Shipp, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of George Shipp, one of the earliest settlers of the San Joaquin valley. …….. There is one thing that Mr. Francis takes pride in, and that is that he voted for Abraham Lincoln at Venice, Cal, in 1861.

Well  why is he not in the 1860 census in Tulare County? according to the biographic sketch George W. had previously lived in Mariposa County where he had been Mining .

In 1858,  abandoning mining, he went to the Kings River region and settled in Drums Valley, where he and Andrew Drum engaged in the hog business.

So after some in-depth searches I discovered that Drums Valley (Drumms Valley or Drum Valley) is just west of Badger in northern Tulare County.

So this is the beginning of the Francis family in Tulare county where George lives until his death in 1914. Where is Venice California? I had assumed it was in Los Angeles area (Venice or Venice Beach). After looking into the History of “Venice of America”, I discovered that Venice was originally in the Santa Monica area and the tract of land was sold to Abbott Kinney and his partner Francis Ryan in 1891 where they built a pier. It became Ocean Park in 1895 and when Kinney opened his “Venice of America” park in 1905. So that does not fit the 1861 date for Venice, California. So I looked at the townships in Tulare county for the 1860 US census, no Venice. Then I checked the townships in the 1870 US Census and found the township of Venice. Searching maps of Tulare County I finally found it. Today it would be near Ivanhoe, just East of Ivanhoe are two groups of hills, Venice Hills North and Venice Hills South and Venice Cove (click on image to enlarge).

Mystery solved.

Next Month I will be looking at the first of the two different Hall Family ‘s.

¹Francis Family of Fauquier County Virginia, by Albert O. Felchlia 1992 available at the Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah (out of print)

²History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California  by Prof. J.M. Guinn, A.M., Chapman Publishing Co. Chicago 1905. Available through the California State Archives, Sacramento, California.

³Clemintine would have been 13 years of age in 1860.