Finding Annie

AND THE MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS OF RUTH FULLER FRANCISCO      

Above: Some of Ruth (Fuller) Francisco's descendants: Annie Grace Cisco and her sister Mable Cisco

(Author's note: Sometimes it just falls out of the sky.)

Genealogy is a tough business.

You wait for months for some tidbit of information you hope will solve whichever dynastic dilemma has taken over your sleep and waking hours. You scour and scrub the internet, applying your waning old man mental skills seeking out the recombinant DNA of missing facts and "pizzle" pieces, always trying some new algorithmic chant in hopes that you will shake something loose from the way back pages of Google Books or from some highlighted full text AI search. I mean you hope you've got the working skills. You've got the schemata of what you need to prove out- but often times like some mathematical question the puzzle just doesn't want to resolve itself.

Then there are the bumps in the road. The "gnarled branches" so to speak.

This week it's been the bureaucrats who've flummoxed me- both for good and bad. This week culminated my 120+ day wait with the National Archives and Records Administration for the Mexican-American War pension file for Clark Cisco and/or his daughter Annie Cisco King- only to be told that they "didn't have anything." And, if that wasn't enough, sending me copies of what they did have or could find- the very same copies of items easily found at FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, or frickn' Zillow. (Okay, so maybe not on Zillow...)

But they didn't have "anything?" 

Did they really even look? 

I kinda don't think so. 

I think they checked their index, sipped a luke-warm Starbuck's from their morning commute, chatted about their plans for Memorial Day weekend with the cute guy or girl in the next cubicle, and, coming up "effortlessly empty," they called it all done and good. I'm pretty sure nobody wanted to go into the dusty old NARA basement to look through the actual files. I imagine a conversation like this:

"Hey, Mabel, this guy Jeff Record keeps emailing us asking for a status on some old pension records copy. You'd think after four months he'd get a clue. Just send him something so we can clear out the backlog. You know how the boss gets when we have too many backlogged email requests..."

Great.

However, it doesn't always go that way. 

Some days, we genealogists actually do get people that give a hoot and will go the extra mile. I'd like to give a BIG shout out to the Madison- Jefferson County Public Library, Madison, Indiana, Local History and Genealogy Department. They who actually took the time to send me something real and amazing. These kind folks sent me proof of Clark Cisco's death- a record I have been angling to find since the start of this. This individual at the MJCPL went the extra mile. They also said that they were willing to go look at the old microfilms if I needed anything else. 

These folks are the unsung heroes of any genealogy. 

Above: The actual death record transcription from Vail's Undertakers notes courtesy of the Madison-Jefferson Public Library, Madison, Indiana, and an actual death record for Clark Cisco/Francisco

I can't thank them enough.

Yes, genealogy is a tough business.

Again, I digress.

The problem from the get-go has been to establish a Mayflower line from passenger Edward Fuller on down to my friend Paige. And yes, I have all of the working parts but proving them out has been a piecemeal series of events. There have been two (in my estimation) major roadblocks in getting there. The first of course was establishing that Ruth Fuller (Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller's direct line descendant) was married to "Old Henry" Francisco of Whitehall, New York, and that the "Francisco/Cisco" line (that of Clark Cisco and Annie Cisco King) descends from them. 

With regard to "Old Henry" and Ruth, I believe my previous blog posts will confirm that the line holds, and that I have met the Genealogical Proof Standard. (A possible forthcoming article submitted for publishing will, with any luck, confirm and validate this portion of the line)

However, on to Paige:

The second part of the "dilemma" has been establishing that Annie Cisco King was Clark Cisco's daughter. You see, there has been literally no record that she ever "was" - no birth record, no death record, and no census record. The only piece of paper that there has ever been has been a rejected Mexican-American War pension file index card naming "Annie King" as a claimant minor to his pension. Yes, that same very pension records that the NARA folks says they don't have- or that they didn't want to be bothered to look for. (One would have thought some correspondence rejecting her application might yet remain...)

Above: This basic genealogy is in bad need of some spelling and name revisions but will work for now.

So in light of this, proving that Annie Cisco King was the daughter of Clark Cisco (aka Shelton Clark Francisco) has been thin at best. Now it isn't that I haven't or can't build a circumstantial argument for the father-daughter relationship. I mean I can put both Clark and Annie in the same town in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, at relatively the same time, but to do so I have had to extrapolate records going foward and backwards. I have had to eliminate "Anabel Cisco" as a possible daughter of Clark's and try to configure and justify "Susan Cisco" in Clark's household as an incorrectly enumerated "Annie Cisco." I have had to argue Annie's existence through the proximity of her brother, John Calvin- who does appear in census records. 

Heck, I could do all of that. No problem. 

I think they call it "making chicken salad out of chicken..." or "lipstick on a pig." It isn't that the argument that "Annie Cisco King is Clark Cisco's daughter" doesn't hold- it does- but it really has needed something more. I can see the Tribunals of Plymouth chucking my circumstantial proofs right out the window without something more. 

Yeah, you know how they get. "We see you are trying to do actual genealogy again Jeff. How cute! Come back next year when you have some actual proof..."

And then today, despite all the non-help from the NARA and with appreciation for the help from the small town library an apple fell from the tree. Frankly, it's as if I found the key to it all on some FaceBook post- or at least what FaceBook was in 1889...

- in the newspaper.

Check it out:

Above: The Madison Courier, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, 6 June 1889, p. 4

And suddenly all the pieces fell into place.

Because you see without this, the Mayflower line for Paige could be argued as only inferential or circumstantial. It could be "argued out"- but possibly also not in a good way.

Now remember- we have absolutely no vital records for Annie Bell Cisco. We have absolutely nothing to link her as the daughter of Clark Cisco/Francisco. 

All we have is that Mexican American War Pension index card- which may or may not be considered "enough."

But we do have this:

We have the 1876 Madison, Jefferson County marriage record where Annie Cisco marries Robert King. This is the document that carries forth the next generation that I wrote about in The Mayflower Kings. 

https://atroubledsage.blogspot.com/2026/01/mayflower-kings-and-descendants-of-ruth.html

Still though, how does it prove that "this Annie Cisco" was "the daughter of Clark Cisco/Francisco?"

It doesn't. Keep reading...

Check out the verbiage again in the above newspaper clipping: "Marshall Cisco" and "attend to the funeral of his niece" and "Mrs. Robert King."

And now this- check out who "Marshall Cisco" is (or was) in Madison, Indiana, in 1889:

             

Above: The Madison Courier, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, Sept 14, 1908

Marshall Cisco=Calvin Cisco=brother of Clark Cisco= Uncle of Mrs. Robert King

And no- I didn't miss a step. 

You see it's easy enough to go back to verify that Calvin Cisco and Clark Cisco were brothers. 

 

Above: Daughters of the American Revolution file for member Harriet Leas Hatfield 238950 Family Bible Record attested to by affidavit. 

Not to mention that they all lived in, wait for it, Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana.

Now I can go on- I can extrapolate from here about the family business, show where both Calvin and Clark were butchers by trade, but I'm good with the above Bible record as the corroborating evidence that Calvin and Clark were brothers. Further, as Clark Cisco was dead by 1889 (having died in May of 1874) it makes sense that his brother "Marshall Cisco" would attend to the funeral needs of his niece, "Mrs. Robert King."

Yeah, right outta the newspapers. 

This small clip exceeds expectations. It identifies relationships and connects the Cisco brothers, Calvin to Clark, Clark to Annie, and Annie as Mrs. Robert King.

"Winner winner, chicken dinner!"

The Mayflower line for Paige holds.

Peace out.

To be continued...

☮