Renison descendants

Dear Antoinette

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out and apologies for the long delay in getting back to you.

I couldn't locate any baptisms for children born to Robert and Jane though their marriage record is available as you refer above. Neither could I locate any record of the marriage of the above children in Ireland. You could check obituaries or death records to see if they can provide any further information - perhaps one of the children were present at the death of a parent.

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support  

Thank you for the advice, however, these siblings all left Ireland before the age of 20 and lived in South Africa for their adult lives. It's unlikely that they ever saw their parents again. There is an unconfirmed rumour that Michael Renison born about 1833 was their brother and that he remained in Ireland. There are records of him living in Cumberland Street, Birr and having many daughters.

Where could I try and search online for death notices? Was it common practice in Ireland (as it was in South Africa in some instances) to name the children on a death certificate of a parent?

Dear Antoinette

Burial/death records were not well kept and it is only after 1864 when civil registration begins that they are accurately recorded. Prior to this burial records are not really available. Unless there is a headstone (which is unlikely give the period in question) and so  it may be difficult to establish anything further. www.rootsireland.ie or family search is your best option, the former is a subscription site. As an aside, civil death records record the name, age, occupation, marital status and address of the deceased as well as the name of the person who registered the death. If a member of the family didn't register the death then no other family info will be included on the record.

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support 

Dear Antoinette,

My great-great-great grandfather was Robert Renison, married to Jane Eddington.  They were married in September 22, 1828, and had twelve children, the last of whom was Robert J. Renison, my great-great grandfather, born September 21, 1853.  His daughter, Julia Renison Musser, wrote a memoir of her father, and in the memoir she wrote, "A brother, the one next to my father in age, had been in America.  Most of the older brothers and sisters were in South Africa.  It was at the time when the diamond mines at Kimberly were the subject of international interest, and were calling many of the young from the older countries who were keen for adventure."  The brother was Thomas Renison, who was a lawyer and later judge, in California.  My great-great-grandfather Robert J. Renison was a missionary in Canada, and then later in the United States where he became Canon in the Los Angeles diocese.  His son Robert John Renison, born in Ireland in 1875 (who was brother to my great-grandfather George), wrote a book "One Day at a Time" in which he wrote, "My father was the youngest of five sons.  All I know of my grandfather is that he made it possible for his sons to establish themselves in some of the most remote parts of the world.  The eldest son went to Australia, the second to South Africa and the third, Thomas, to California.  He wwas the only one of the brothers I ever met.  In later life, when I knew him, he was a judge in California.  Of the fourth son I know nothing.  I can remember seeing my grandfather only once, but he evidentlly was determined that his sons should be as widely separated as possible, whether to preserve them from themselves or the troubles of the times in Ireland I do not know."  page 4-5.  

Julia Renison Musser's memoir, however, goes into great detail on some aspects of daily life of Robert Renison and Jane Eddington, having heard the stories from her father Robert J. Renison, the son of Robert and Jane.  I located one birth record from SHINRONE parish, county Offaly, for a Catherine Rennison, born to Robert Rennison and Jane, on December 20, 1829.  Since Robert and Jane were married September 22, 1828 in ROSCREA parish, this may have been their first child.  After that birth, I found no records of birth for any of the 11 other children, including Robert my ancestor born in 1853.  I have only performed online research, however, and it could be that some parish records are not online.  

As far as the name Benjamin, it could be the name of one of the children of Robert and Jane.  I do not know the names of the parents of Jane Eddington, but I did find a Benjamin Edington married to Mary Alloway in County Tipperary in ROSCREA Parish, who had several children together.  One record is "Not Recorded" Edington, baptised August 2, 1811, born to Benjamin and Mary.  Julia Renison's memoir of Canon Renison notes that Jane Eddington was about 42 years old when she had Robert in 1853, so that would be 1811.  This could be the birth record of Jane Eddington.  A death record for Jane Renison from December 3, 1897 from county Limerick shows she was 88 years old, which would be 1809, fairly close.  I cannot rule out that this "NR" baptism in 1811 is of Jane Eddington, born to Benjamin Eddington and Mary Alloway.

The clues above do make me think there may be a connection between your family in South Africa and my family who descended from the younger children who left to Canada and the United States.

Brent William Renison

Oregon, United States of America

Good afternoon Brent

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. We have just today returned from Ireland where I visited to walk in the footsteps of my great grandfather, William Robert Renison born around 1839/1840. His brother (?) was Benjamin Joseph born 8 May 1836 at Lockeen Glebe, Parstonstown, Kings Co. Ireland. William and his sister, Jane born 17 March 1844 arrived in South Africa in 1859 on the ship, the Vocalist which sailed from Liverpool. Benjamin was already in South Africa. It was rumoured that Thomas was a brother but this has not been confirmed. There was also a Michael living in Birr born in 1833/34 who could also have been a brother. Do you know whether Robert Renison and Jane were tenants of Sir Francis Synge at Lockeen because if so, this would point to confirmation that Benjamin Joseph was definitely a son of theirs as the record of his birth was transcribed from a family Bible written in his hand - this information was received from a descendant in the form of a photocopy of the actual entry from the Bible.

Thank you again for the valuable information sent to me.

Kind regards

Antoinette

Good day Antoinette,

I am very pleased to hear from you!  How nice that you were able to visit Ireland!

While I do not have any documents which could verify for sure whether William Robert Renison was the son of Robert Renison and Jane Eddington, the circumstances point to a distinct possibility.  I know for sure my ancestor, Robert John Renison, born 1853 was the son and 12th child of Robert R. and Jane E.  I also know for sure that his older brothers and sisters went to South Africa.  That is written in our family historical accounts.  Robert Renison (b 1796 or 1798) seems to have had a twin brother William?  I question this as there is no account of it, but there are two 1796 records of birth - one for Robert, one for William, in 1796 born to William who was a weaver.  The tithing records from 1824 in Shinrone show three Renison men - John, Robert and William.  We know Robert married Jane Eddington in 1828 in Roscrea, which was Jane's home town.  There is also a marriage record of William Rennisson and Ellenor Taylor from 1829.  It could be the two brothers married close in time. There are births recorded in the 1843 time frame to William and Ellen.  I suppose it is possible that your ancestor's parents were William and Ellen,  It does seem strange that out of 12 children born to Robert and Jane, however, the only birth record I have found online is the one for Catherine, who was born in 1829 in Shinrone, where Robert was living when he married Jane.  It leads me to believe we can find the birth records of the other 11 children, including your ancestor William Robert Renison and mine, Robert John Renison (born 1853), should be out there somewhere, especially since their first child Catherine, has a birth record from 1829.  How should we go about requesting the records?  I should say that when I was obtaining birth and baptismal records for the son of Robert J., my great-grandfather George Renison (born 1880), there was no name on the online birth record, but I did receive a birth certificate from Clonoulty in Tipperary county showing his name on the baptismal certificate.  I'm attaching (hopefully it shows up) a picture of the Renison boys from 1894.

Good evening Brent

Prior to visiting Ireland I contacted the Offaly History Society and research there showed no baptism records for William Robert or Jane in the Birr Church of Ireland. Nenagh Genealogy answered my query about birth records in the Lockeen Church of Ireland records also with a negative stating that the baptism records only started from 1879. I visited the Nenagh Genealogy centre but wasn't able to spend much time there as they were about to close but Geraldine Malone was kind enough to give me some photocopies of records, one a birth record for a Robert Rennison born in 1843 in the Townland of "Eglish Glebe", Parish Aglishcloghane. The father's name was William Rennison, mother was Ellen. I also received two death records for Robert Renison/Rennison both for 1881, one for Dorrha (Carrig) and another for Riverstown (Carrig).

A distant relative who is researching the Renisons and who visited Ireland last year with the express purpose of delving into the family history will be interested in your information which I will pass on to him. He is quite involved in a genealogical society and has done a presentation to this society on the Renison family. Perhaps he would be able to contact you directly as he has more resources than myself to follow up the information you have given me?

When he visited Ireland last year he obtained a copy of the marriage record directly from the St Cronan's church records at  Roscrea (22 Sept 1828) which states Robert Rennison of Lockeen married Jane Eddington of Roscrea. Witnesses were George Heath, Thomas Goulding, William Rennison.

I will keep looking for clues and keep you posted if anything comes up that may help and would appreciate hearing from you should you find anything new. I have recently read that more civil records in Ireland are becoming available day by day so I will do some searching shortly.

Kind regards

Antoinette

Good day all,

It is so heartwarming to see such interest in the Renison family name.

My grandfather, Dennis Renison, from George, South Africa, tried to accumulate as much info as possible before his passing in 2011.

My father is Mervin Renison, and I have a sister, no male siblings.
My uncle, Winn Renison, emigrated to New Zealand many years ago, and also has two daughters.

The sad reality is thus, from our side, the surname will not be carried on.

We hope to take a trip to Ireland next year, together with my father, to further investigate our ancestry.

I am married, and have a beautiful three year old daughter. I recently survived thyroid cancer, and work as a physiotherapist.

We have a few Renison surnames still in South Africa, but almost all seem te be female and we are thus losing the Renison this side...

Thank you so much for everyone for the extensive research and passion for this. It is encouraging and heartwarming to see.

Warm South African goodbye for now!
Melanie (Renison) van der Merwe
George, South Africa

Hello Melanie,

I am your father Mervin's fourth cousin, and live in the United States. Winn and I each performed a Y-DNA test which tests the male chromosome which does not change over time except through random mutation, and confirmed the relationship. Out of 37 markers, 36 matched exactly and the other one was only one repeat different, which confirms a very close relationship at the level of fourth cousins. We share the same third great grandparents, who were Robert Renison and Jane Eddington. Robert and Jane had 12 children, including 5 boys. They all left Ireland in the Nineteenth century to Canada, the U.S., South Africa and Australia. You and I are fourth cousins, once removed, and your daughters are my childrens' fifth cousins. I have one son, age 17 and a daughter age 13. My brother also has a son and daughter. So there are two Renisons over here who will carry our name forward. I have encouraged some other Renison families to test the Y-DNA through FamilyTreeDNA to see if we match, because that is the only sure way to determine paternal lineage. Although our family was in Ireland, there are other Renisons in England and I do not yet have any confirmation through Y-DNA testing whether those families are related to ours or not. Our Y-DNA is originally from India, the H haplogroup. Our paternal ancestors were enslaved about a thousand years ago and served as soldiers for the Ghaznavid Turks and then likely the Seljuk Turks later. Our ancestors then migrated west for the next several centuries until finally arriving in Ireland and England in the 1500s. I know this sounds incredible but the DNA evidence of this origin is clear.

Hello Melanie

I made contact with your father some years ago and like to think that I can take some credit in helping to solve the mysteries of the Renisons because of putting the questions "out there". (I am the great granddaughter of William Robert Renison). Luckily Brent came to the fore and with all the knowledge he has gathered through his research and the DNA tests, we are all so much the wiser and fulfilled. Thank you Brent, I really appreciate everything you have done and even if it isn't possible for me to meet you one day, I am hatching a plan that should my daughter travel to the USA with her husband on one of his business trips, she could meet up with you.

Antoinette Saunders

Hi Antionette,

I fully agree. Without you and Brent, and all the other participants here, I would have to do a lot of work to find out more about my heritage. I feel so privileged to have found you and very thankful to all of you and your passion with regard to this. I suddenly do not need to look further, because of all your hard work.

I also hope to meet you all, and suddenly feel such a warmth from family I never knew I had before, thank you for that all.

Lots of Renison love from sunny South Africa ( although today it's cold and misty):-)

Melanie