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

The players - you gotta have a scorecard

I'll post more details as we go along.  In the meantime, here's a scorecard.

Downer's side of the family:

Renshaw.  Downer's father, Claude Arthur Renshaw, and his family were from Iowa.  The first Renshaw families emigrated to Iowa from Maryland around 1850.  This branch of the Renshaw family arrived in Maryland from England in the mid 1600's.  This is a very well documented, researched line.   There's an active group of the "Renshaw cousins" who are researching it, still.  They have even done DNA testing to confirm some of the lines.   Now that's some serious research.

Parkinson.  Downer's mother, Zoe Parkinson, grew up in Weede, Montana.  Her parents were pioneer settlers, having moved to Montana from Illinois around 1900.  Zoe's mother was Florence Downer Chambers.   The Downer family (as in "Downer's Grove, Illinois") is very well documented.  The first Downer emigrated to Connecticut from England around 1630.  It is this line that qualifies all of us to belong to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) .  We have an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution.  Zoe did the research and joined the DAR in 1955.  I'll be posting some of her research later. 

Mary Kay's side of the family:

Heffernan.  Mary Kay's father, David James Heffernan, was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts to William T Heffernan and Jeanette Sanderson.  William emigrated to Boston from Ireland in 1862.  Jeanette was born in Scotland.  Her family moved to Boston circa 1855.

Lyons.  Mary Kay's mother, Margaret Lyons, was born in Quincy, Massachusetts  to Matthew Lyons and Catherine Flanagan (aka Kitty).  Matthew moved to Quincy from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada in 1878, when he was 18.    Matthew's father, Dennis Lyons, emigrated from Ireland to PEI around 1840.  His mother, Margaret Costello, was born in Newfoundland.