Roots and wings

Hey, Loosh, where did baby Renshaws come from?

Mark recently asked where Renshaws come from.  Here's an overview.   

THOMAS RENSHAW was in Baltimore by 1710.  Most likely from England.  Most of the Renshaws in this country descend from Thomas or his brother. 

Thomas' great grandson, was JAMES RENSHAW (1781 - 1866).  James and his wife, ARAMINTA SMITH moved from Baltimore to Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania around 1800.  The war was over and the west was opening up.  The big opportunity, of course, was land.  James and Araminta raised a family of 10 children.  Most of them stayed in that area.

James Renshaw, circa 1860.  Lucia's fourth great grandfather.  Claude A Renshaw looked very much like this when he was in his 90's

James' oldest son, GEORGE SMITH RENSHAW and his wife, MARTHA EVANS, moved their family of 9 children to Farmersburg, Clayton County, Iowa in 1853. Once again, land was opening up - Iowa had just become a state and was looking for new citizens.

   George Smith Renshaw (1803-1868).  Lucia's third great grandfather.

George and Martha died in Farmersburg.  Most of their children stayed in eastern Iowa. His oldest son, DAVID L RENSHAW married PERSIS ANN ANGIER and had 10 children. After David's son, CLARENCE V RENSHAW married AUGUSTA HOLLINGSWORTH in 1882, David and most of his children - including newly married Clarence and Augusta - moved to western Iowa. They all settled in and around Inwood, Iowa. This is where CLAUDE ARTHUR RENSHAW was born in 1891.

Here is some of the details of the information, above. There's LOTS more where this came from.

Download clarence_pedigree.PDF

Get out your kilts, lads and lassies

Janet Ross SANDERSON Heffernan, 1916

Last week, I "jumped the pond" in family history research and now I'm ready to get my kilt in the ROSS clan tartan and find me some Highland Games. 

I discovered that Janet Ross SANDERSON was born in Abbottshall, County Fife, Scotland on November 12, 1848.

The Sandersons emigrated to Boston around 1850. Janet married William T HEFFERNAN in 1868. They were the parents of David James HEFFERNAN (Poppy).

Scotland has some terrific online research capability so once I had found Janet's birth record, I was able to go back 3 generations from Janet - to the generation born about 1775. Some of the family names are: GOURLAY, WRIGHT; ROSS and MITCHEL.  Many of them are buried in Abbottshall Cemetary and their gravestones can still be seen today. 

In the meantime, for those of you who love golf, you come by it naturally. Abbotshall is on the north side of the Firth of the Forth, only 20 miles from St Andrews. 

For the rest of us, it's in the epicenter of Scotland's single malt scotch producing region.