Francom Family Forum

Although I have had the marriage certificate of Elizabeth Francom to Richard Pike for several weeks now, I was still unsure about whether or not she was our Elizabeth Francom. But this week I found the marriage certificate of George Francom and Ann Aitken. (He was the only Francom child not to emigrate to Utah.) One of the witnesses to that marriage was Ellen Doggett, the oldest grandchild of Richard and Elizabeth Pike! So now I'm confident we have the correct person. I'm still trying to find the death records for Richard or Elizabeth.

On three of four census records, Elizabeth Francom Pike claims to have been born in Bristol, not Wales. On the fourth, she was born in Temple Mills, Berkshire. Since I have been unable to find a single parish record in Wales and Keynsham for even one of her sixteen alleged siblings, I'm thinking that perhaps the family rumor of settling in Kensham may be false. Of course we cannot ignore non-conformist churches. I believe I found Joseph's (the father of Elizabeth) burial record in a Methodist burial ground in Bristol. (see Joseph's page for more information)

And finally, after compiling all the Francom/Frankcom/Francomb/Frankham/Franckombe/Francombe entries from dozens of Bristol parish records and putting them into families, I am even more confident that the parish baptism records for William Francom are in fact his. Although there were two other couples with the names James and Elizabeth, one was married in 1819 and the other had a child just months before William was born. According to the parish ledger, Elizabeth was living on Redcross Street when William was born. There were also two other Francom families living on Redcross Street: George and Charles, brothers from Mangotsville. They attended the same Methodist church as Joseph Francom, who I believe is Elizabeth's father. Later Joseph would die on Bread Street, the same street where Samuel Francom had all his children. (Samuel is the grandfather of William's second wife, Sarah Gunner.) I still don't know who Samuel's father is.

Anyway, I only have a week left to figure this out and I think the answer may lie one generation earlier.

If you are still before you leave, would you share the research you posted you mentioned ?

I'll send an e-mail to everybody who has registered for a username. You should get it in the next week or so. All of the vital certificates have been posted; they are attached to the individuals they belong to. For example, to see William's baptism certificate, find his page and under "christening" it will say, "View baptism record".