The Second Step
AND THE MAYFLOWER EFFECT OF RUTH FULLER FRANCISCO
Above: A descendant of Ruth Fuller Francisco - Mrs. Amanda Francisco Brown, of Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, and late of Baton Rouge.
(Author's note: Genealogy is a process.)
As always, relatively, unedited.
I.
Okay, I've introduced you to Ruth.
And yes, I introduced you to Ruth Fuller, wife of legendary supra-centarian Henry Francisco of Whitehall, New York, and how she (and they) connect to Paige. I've explained how it is that "the Henry who married Ruth" is the same legendary Henry and that all the evidence (limited though it is) points to Henry's Ruth being the daughter of Aaron Fuller and his wife Ruth (Sawyer) Fuller of "Silver Book" and Mayflower descent.
I've reiterated my belief that Ruth (Fuller) Francisco was not the daughter of Aaron's erstwhile and definitely not Mayflower cousin Daniel Fuller and his wife Mehitable (Broughton) Fuller. I've reconnoitered the biographies the sons of Aaron Fuller living in Whitehall, those being Ruth's brothers, Ephraim, Henry, Judah, and Aaron, as a means of better connecting the dots, and I've retold the simple geographic and census records of Whitehall, New York, that connect our girl Ruth Fuller to this Mayflower Fuller family.
I've demonstrated that there's nothing found linking her elsewhere as a daughter of "Daniel and Mehitable," save a few "unsourced mentions" in Doherty's work, Beekman's Patent, and elsewhere (that I could find) that imply the false positive that our boy Henry married this other random Ruth. I've even shown that there really isn't any confusion over just "which Henry Francisco was which" or who. I think I've built a reasonable case (with the help of other researchers) for the "preponderance of evidence" of this Fuller Mayflower line.
I've at the very least cast doubt on the other accounts.
Doubtless, the tribunals of Plymouth will likely disagree.
But I'm gonna put all that in the back burner here for a bit. You see, I'm trying to prove out a whole Mayflower line and not just Henry and Ruth's part of the story. I need to prove the line right on down to my friend Paige. And while I think the line is there, there are some spots in the line that still need work.
Let's start by looking at the each section of the line, at what we know for certain, and where the line is weakest. Let's take it apart and highlight the generations that need better "connectors."
II.
The first set:
1. "Old" Henry Francisco = Ruth Fuller
2. Solomon Francisco = Mary Freeman
3. John Francisco = Anna Bell Kyle
Getting from "Old Henry" and Ruth through to John is fairly easy at least in terms of published sources. For the most part we're safe with "Page 69" from the work below. (Forgive me for repeating myself and using this image again borrowed from my previous post - it's the easiest reference for the generations above.)
Above: Edna W. Townsend and Charles D. Townsend, editors, Missing Links: Genealogical Clues, no. 4 (November 1962): 69, Solomon Francisco entry; Burlington, VT: Chedwato Service.
Now watch. Here is where we get the next "one of two" genealogical problem generations:
4.) Clark Cisco = Sarah Hurley
The trouble with Clark Cisco, son of John Francisco and Anna Belle (Kyle) Francisco, is connecting him back to his parents John Francisco and Anna Belle (Kyle) Cisco. (Notice how the name begins to get shortened here from Francisco to Cisco at least in this branch).
On the surface, and outside of an IGI record through FamilySearch, and a copy of his marriage record to Sarah Hurley, I haven't seen much else. There are (thus far) records of his service in the Mexican-American War, and census records, but outside of the service records possibly linking him to his parents there (this far) hasn't been much.
The census records are too linited, or too early in time.
I also have not resolved why he is called "Shelton Clark Francisco" and "Clark" elsewhere. I have found no other record of the name Shelton Francisco. The Fairmount Cemetry record for "Clark Cisco" is also extremly vague and not cooborated any place else - though likely a true one.
Clark's parents (John and Anna Belle) died when Clark was a kid. They left a lot of other children, some minors, and ideally I should be able to find some record of guardianship filed for them in, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. I've got some e-mails out to different libraries and genealogcial societies but so far nothing back.
I am crossing my fingers to get lucky here.
Above: Ohio, County Court (Hamilton County), "Hamilton, Ohio, United States records," image 431 of 811, DGS 005446001, FamilySearch, accessed January 15, 2026, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9MP-721N
In the mean time, I have had to take the long way around to link Clark Cisco to his parents. To do this, I need to take a look at his brothers and sisters.
Now there is no published record of their children other than submitted fanily trees to go off of here. Each of those family trees varies too, that is they vary in which children they list as John and Anna Belle's kids - and Clark's brothers and sisters.
I'm going to start by listing only some of them here. I'm not going to list children that died young, or have little to no record beyond being listed as one of John and Anna Belle's kids. I am going to list any of the kids that "connect together" - and that will connect back to Clark - and connect them all to their parents, John and Anna Belle. Locations and occupations will be very important here also. Pay special note to Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, and the notion that after John and Anna Belle died their chidlren were farmed out with most of them ending up here.
Anyway, here goes. Remember - We're trying to "Prove Out Clark Cisco"
a.) ALONZO FRANCISCO - Said to be the oldest son of John and Anna Belle (Kyle) Francisco. Let's look at his obituary. What does it tell us?
Here we learn that Alonzo Francisco came from Cincinnati, settled in Madsion, Jefferson County, Indiana, and that he was a butcher. We also learn that he was the brother of "City Marshall Calvin Cisco." This record is also good because it shows the different spellings for the two brother's surnames. However, the record does not name his parents. So, going further on, what do we know about his said brother, Calvin Cisco?
b.) CALVIN CISCO - said to be an additional son of John Francisco and Anna Belle Kyle, here is his obituary
Again, we learn he is from Madison, and his occupation is generally confirmed from with what is in brother Alonzo's obituary. We also learn that his son (likely named after his grandfather) was the mayor of Madison. In his son the mayor's biography, we learn a little bit more:
We learn that Calvin was also, like Alonzo, a butcher. So we have connected the two brothers via their published occupations and can safely note that they are "one and the same" as the brothers mentioned in Alonzo's obituary.
So what else do we have? Well, we have the girls of course - their sisters. For these we got a little bit lucky, insofar as we have death certificates.
c.) MARY OPHELIA (FRANCISCO) HUNTER:
While not exactly a smoking gun, Mary's death certificate does name her father as "John Francisco." Mary isn't from (or doesn't live in) Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, She certainly is included in the submitted family trees as a daughter of John Francisco, but it's too unclear who her mother was or if she (Mary) connects to Alonzo of Calvin. We may have to put Mary on hold and circle back.
But we do still have Harriet.
d.) HARRIET (FRANCISCO) LEAS
In many ways, Harriet is the "smoking gun" that connects all the siblings, or at least (she) connects back to Calvin, and then to their parents John and Anna Belle (Kyle) Francisco. Her death certificate really says it all:
It names her parents.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
We also know that Harriet was married in, wait for it, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana. (Image of marriage certificate not shown) Harriet's lineage is even spelled out in an old DAR application - all the way back to Old Henry. Still, we need to be able to connect her to her brothers to confirm the same parents, - and we need to be able to connect Clark Cisco - to all of them for Paige's line to hold.
Above: Cincinnati Enquirer, April 8, 1894,
But hey, that's all well and good, but indeed what about our boy Clark Cisco?
We still need Clark!
Hang in there... we're getting closer.
The above Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, in the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper article does the job pretty well connecting the "sibling dots." In it, Harriet is visiting her brother Calvin Cisco. So now we've connected Alonzo to Calvin, and Calvin to Harriet, and with Harriet naming her parents. As we don't believe John Francisco had any other wives aside from Anna Belle Kyle, and because he pre-deceased her, we are safe to assume that they are the parents of at least three of the four children named above.
And then, I did found this:
The above are Indiana state tax records for 1864 listing Clark "Sisco" and his brother Calvin. It's pretty good as now we can (once again I hope) link all of the siblings together.
But...
I have not included the full letter - just the top.
And further, there's Clark - Right there in a letter from a grandson of Old Henry's spelling out the family line ~ and written in 1886!!!!
It was after seeing the above information on our dear Harriet that I decided to go back to the D.A.R. records. I recalled that descendant of Harriet's who had joined the D.A.R. through her mother and the line to Old Henry. I wondered if there wasn't some other genealogy in there that might help. What I found in the D.A.R. records was frickn' amazing.
Now remember, that these records are likely no good for our august and occasionally myopic friends at the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, however, I think you will agree that after seeing these documents en toto that they definitely connect all the siblings together. AND frankly, to Hell with the GSMD if they don't find it to be a "preponderance of proof" - proof that Paige's ancestor, Clark Cisco, is a direct descendant of Old Henry - and of course, also from Ruth Fuller, daughter of Aaron Fuller of the Mayflower Fullers. :)
Check this sh*t out!!! Note this letter from 1886.
I have not included the full letter - just the top.
The "meat" of it (the letter) is at the bottom:
The Bible transcription misses brother Alonzo spelled out in the obituary for him above, but it does include Mary Ophelia, (Mary Ophelia (Francisco) Hunter) and given the prior statement in the 1886 letter from Cousin Elon Francisco, I think we've answered a little bit more about Shelton Clark "Clark" Cisco/Sisco/Sciscoe/Francisco.
And there’s the ‘smoking gun’ for the name: Cousin Elon’s 1886 letter identifies John’s son as ‘Shelton’—finally giving a first name to the man we’ve known only as Clark, and proving that Shelton Clark Cisco is one and the same."
Even better, in the depths of all this, was a sweet cookie in the D.A.R. document mix:
So I should probably stop here. I would ask that if you're curious, go back and re-read my previous post (see link at the top above) just so you'll know where we're at in the line.
The next generation, that of Clark's daughter, Generation 5 - Anna Belle (Cisco) King, will be the "near next brick wall" or "Plymouth Rock" to move.
We're making progress in proving the Mayflower line to Paige.
To be continued...
☮️
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