Abshier Name

John (Jean) Abshire and Francis (Francoise) Hargrave

 "Footprints of the Abshier Family in America" by Thelma Abshier Cessna, page 2, states that John (Jean) Abshire was born in Pennsylvania and that "It is the opinion of several Abshire researchers that the Abshire Family that settled in Virginia in Bedford and Franklin Counties in the late 1770's are of the same family.  The children's names all correspond to those of our John Abshire in Lousiana".  There are no citations that I saw as to why Mrs. Cessna maintained that John (Jean) Abshire came from PA.

The VA Abshire genealogies that I found list a John I Abshire with the exact same birthday as our John Abshire and married to Francis Hargrave (same birth and parents)  before moving to Louisiana.  While I haven't seen census, birth or other documents to prove this, the other information in their family tree (see Lewis below) proved to be very accurate.   I think this information is more credible and I hope to find some records from the 1700's in Bedford and Franklin County Virginia records to substantiate, but I just haven't had the time to prove this.

Therefore, the family tree that I developed uses John I Abshier born in VA as the ancestor.  Also, I have traced the Francis Hargrave to which he was married to origins in Yorkshire, England.  Therefore, I doubt that her name was Francoise.

The lineage on the VA Abshire family tree listed the father of John as Peter, then Arthur Jr. then Arthur then Lewis.  Lewis was reported to have been born in 1617 in Stifford, Essex, England, that he immigrated to the US in 1637 and that his father's name was Richard.