A work in progress

I just posted a link in the right column to the Google document where I'm compiling Primary Source documents about these early American generations of the Reneaus (really the Reynauds and Renos during these years).  At the bottom of the doc you'll see tabs with the names of the people that I'm working on, along with references that I find to their lives.  The ID numbers on the Relationships tab are those found on FamilySearch.org.
Primary Source documents are those that were created at the time of the event, by one who had first-hand knowledge of the event.  Obviously those are the best quality records for documenting the past.  Secondary Source documents are either created at the time of the event, but not by an eye-witness, or are created by an eye-witness but NOT at the time of the event.  Tertiary (or as my father likes to say "Imaginary") Source documents are created long after the event by those who didn't witness it.  Much of what has been compiled on the pre-American and early American Reneau family falls into this category.
If you happen upon any Primary or even Secondary Source documents that I have not yet found on these people, I would love it if you'd email me at the email address in the right column.  Thanks!

Lewis Reno, Churchwarden

I've been trying to figure out which Lewis Reno served in the Dettingen Parish.  There are records of a Lewis Reno consistently through the Vestry book from when the parish was organized in 1745, and the death of a "Major Reno" is recorded in 1774.  But the notes are are just recording the minutes of the meetings and those present--they wouldn't necessarily have made notes of the death of Lewis III ( in 1755) even if he'd been a vestryman.  They may have just replaced him at the next meeting, and could have replaced him with his son Lewis, so there would be no gap in the Lewises.

If it was Lewis Reno III, the colonist, who served from 1745-until his death in 1755, then he would have been in the range of 67 to 77 when first elected as a vestryman in 1745.  And he would have been 73 to 79 in 1751 when elected Churchwarden.

Spelling and titles are no help.  The Lewis (or Lewises) on the records of the Dettingen Parish is alternately Lewis Renno, Lewis Reno Gent., Captain Lewis Reno, and Majr. Lewis Reno.  On occasion there are two different designations for Lewis on the same entry, which may have been Lewis III and IV, or Lewis IV and V.

My best guess is that it was Lewis IV (b. 1710, d. 1774) who served as vestryman from the time Dettingen Parish was organized out of Hamilton Parish in 1745, and also served off and on as Churchwarden and/or Collector.

One reason for not thinking that the church was all full of old men (and women actually - Catherine Bristor became Sexton of the Quantico church upon the death of her husband, the previous Sexton - page 14 of the Dettingen Parish records linked at right) is found on this gravestone below (in the Aquia Anglican Church graveyard in Stafford, VA).  James Scott was only 30 when he was appointed to be the Minister of this church, so it doesn't seem that young-ish age was a factor against you in positions of responsibility.  And life expectancy wasn't all that great then either.

Dettingen Parish Vestry Records

In the right column you can see a link to a folder containing nearly every page of the records now extant for 1749-1782 for the Dettingen Parish, which roughly covers the same area as Prince William County, Virginia.  "Nearly every page" because I decided to photograph every page that had a Reno on it, and nearly every page did.  Our Reno colonists were prominent people in their community, and it's heart-warming to see how they were trusted with positions of responsibility.  Like on page 23, where in 1756 it was "Order'd that Mr. Lewis Reno and James Nisbitt be Church Wardens the Ensuing Yeare and that they take Care of the poor as Usuall."  He was given responsibility to be the collector of tithes (taxes really, paid in pounds of tobacco).   He continued in this position of responsibility until his death, only taking a brief break from 1771 until another church warden died in 1774, upon which he entered service again until his death in 1775 at the age of 64.

The Reno-Walters land patent - 1712

 This is the 1712 land patent given to Lewis Reno.  Interesting that they would mark out the boundaries of the land taking their bearings from (for example) a red oak or a maple tree.  No wonder there were lots of land disputes!

Fun to see the handwritten text of this document

This document is called a Crown Bounty, which shows an intent to emigrate to a colony, along with money granted to do so, from a fund collected to aid distressed Frenchmen.  It is dated September 8, 1687.  The fabulous thing here is that it lists the names of the females - so hard to find at this time in history!  The confusing thing is that it lists "Lewis Reynaud of Angemois, his wife and 8 children" then below appears to list only four children.  Several theories have been floated for this, but the current one in popularity is that Benjamin is their son, and his wife Mary and daughters Marianne and Mary are also being counted in the first total of "children."  (Sorry I cut off the total on the right column, but the math is easy to do.)

Solid Evidence Wanted!

Reneau family history has been researched and scrutinized for over a century, and much good information has been gathered.  This blog is an attempt to pull together all of the primary source records that exist for the early generations who came to America, and perhaps eventually reaching back beyond that.

Who am I and why do I care?  I have a lot of Reneau DNA in my make-up: my great-grandmother was a Reneau, and in her lines there is an inordinate amount of Reneau DNA as there were a lot of cousin marriages keeping the DNA strong (there were 13 Reneaus in the 7 generations that preceded her).  This is not really about DNA though, but about finding out more of who they were and how they lived and loved.

For the past twenty-one years I have lived near the area that was originally settled by Lewis Reynaud, and I know it well.  I have made half-hearted attempts in the past to find out more about these events in the history of colonial America.  But with small push--being asked by my church to become a family history consultant for our local members--I have taken this on in a more serious fashion.

I hope to post the things I have found on a regular basis and have this be a repository for Reneau records.