Jutta,
Thank you very much for your information. Charles Francis isn't nearly as unusual a name as I thought it was. I'm such a slow typist, I sometimes wish I could talk with people over the phone about their ancestry. Sometimes it seems like it would be much easier.
After 50 years of researching my family, what a surprise it is to know that there are at least two others that are researching what seems to be the same family. I guess the first thing I need to do is make sure we are writing about the same Francis family. You and Angelahutch have added so much to the pot.
Angelahutch is writing about Irish Travellers. I don't even know what Irish Travellers are. You mentioned a Gypsy Rose Lee. The only Gypsy Rose Lee I know was in burlesque in America. A movie was actually made about her life. Is an Irish Traveller what Europeans refer to as a traveling burlesque performer?
Let me review my Francis family notes and what you have written in your emails.
One question that's popping into my mind is, how many Francis families were living in Wexford, Ireland in the 1840's? It would certainly make a difference if their were a hundred or one. Sometimes when I look at census records here in the United States, I feel many questions are answered when there is only one family living in an area with my family's surname. That has occurred over and over again, especially when I'm searching a family that lived in the mid-1800s.
If Angelahutch reads this post, I want to thank her for letting me know where she lives. In return, I'll just say, "I live in Kentucky in the USA."
Please keep in touch.