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What have we learned from the Study So Far?

Are all Francises descended from one individual with the Francis surname?

No. Our study has turned up many different haplogroups. This implies that any common paternal line ancestor of all of our participants would have to have lived tens of thousands of years ago. That said, some of the participants in our study clearly do share a common ancestor.

Does the study show any relationship between the Francis surname and similar surnames?

Mostly not. Although some individuals in the study report having had ancestors who changed their names to Francis from Francisco or to France from Francis, and there are documented other cases of this having occurred, the only surnames that have so far been found to match Francises are Fraunces and Francies, both of which are probably simply variant spellings of the same English names. The group also contains individuals named France, Francois and Francisco, and so far, none have found any matches with Francises.

What does the study say about the ancestral national origins of its participants?

Looking at haplogroup alone, the study suggests that the majority of the group's members originated in Western Europe. By far, the largest number of lines in the study belong to the R1b1b2 haplogroup, the predominant Western European haplogroup. Of the smaller groups, most are reasonably common in Western Europe. I1 appears mostly in Northern Europe, including Scandinavia, Germany, the Low Countries, Norman France and Great Britain. I2b has a similar, but slightly more southerly range. T is very common in parts of Italy and southern Germany. The other small groups may appear more commonly in other areas (R1A in Eastern Europe, E1b1b2 in southeastern Europe and North Africa, J2 in the Mediterranean and Middle East, G in the Caucasus), but sometimes show up in Western Europe. A few Francises show evidence of African or Jewish descent.

Self-reported ancestry of members supports this evidence. Most members are from North America, with a few Australians, Europeans and others. Among these, by far, the largest group reports British -- usually English or Welsh ancestry, although this varies somewhat among the different surnames. The English derivation of the name, combined with an 1891 census showing the distribution of the Francis surname in Great Britain supports this, showing the two largest clusters in Wales around Glamorgan and East England from London extending eastward. British ancestry is not universal among Francises, however. One individual reports descent from a Portuguese named Francisco, who changed his name to Francis; another believes he is descended from a child of German extraction who was adopted by a Francis family; and one claims French ancestry. Others, as mentioned above, show evidence of Jewish or African ancestry.

Among individuals surnamed France, the picture is less clear. According to a genealogist working with one branch of the France line, that particular line is descended from a Swiss individual named Frantz, but has the haplogroup of E1b1b2. Another line is of the R1b1b2a1b5b subgroup of R1b1b2, indicating that he may be related to the Great Northern Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and possibly of Scots-Irish descent. A third France line has not provided an ancestry but comes from a branch of I2b that is common in Great Britain.

Not surprisingly, both Francoises in the study claim French ancestry. The French in the study claims Irish descent, while the Franciscos do not indicate ancestry, but are probably of Spanish, Italian or Portuguese ancestry.

Where in Britain did the different lines of Francises came from?

So far, there seem to be two large nodes: Eastern England on the one hand, and Wales, Cornwall and southwestern England on the other. The eastern England group seems to be made up primarily of I1s, while R1bs predominate in the west. This is not surprising. I1 is more common in eastern England than any other part of Britain, although even here, it is much less common than R1b. On the other hand, R1b is much more common in the west. Aside from the R1bs and I1s, the only other individual we can place in a part of England is a J2, which comes from Wales.

What lines of Francises have you isolated?

A complete listing of the lines uncovered appears on the groups page. Some lines that we understand reasonably well in terms of both a paper trail and DNA are:

• The Baltimore Line of Samuel Francis
• The Wales to Pennsylvania line of Philip Francis
• The Theodore Francis sub-branch of the Wethersfield line

There are several other lines that are reasonably well-documented in terms of paper trail, but do not have enough matches to isolate the DNA signatures, while another cluster has 4 matching individuals, but has not provided much information about its background. For others, we have neither enough paper trail background nor enough matches. Even the Theodore Francis line above is only a sub-group of a major group of Francises that is not yet well-understood.

What other ties have been uncovered?

Several Francis lines have close DNA matches with individuals with other family names. These matching family names include Rose, Haydon,and Hunt. At this point, we do not know for certain why any of these matches exist. A link between the Wethersfield Francises, one of the I1 lines, and a family called Rose, has been traced to colonial Connecticut at or before 1658.