Spelling?

This is a blog dedicated to compling primary source documents on the Reneau family. But that's not as simple as it seems, for many reasons, one of which being that there are such a lot of different spellings of the name within the family. Take an "R", follow it with any vowel or two, and maybe another consonant, then put an "n" or two, then pretty much any combination of vowels and consonants and you have Reneau as it is spelled in America!

My default will be "Reneau" as that is how my great-grandmother spelled it, but I will preserve the spelling of the name in any document that I find it in. Here's a partial list of variants: Reno, Renno, Rennoe, Renoe, Renow, Rennow, Rayno, Raynoo, Raynaud, Reyno, Renau, Reano, Renaud, Reneaud, Reynaud, Regnauld, Regnault, Regnaut, Regnaud, Renaugh, Renaut, Renner, Reneauw, Reneaux, Renaux, Ranew, Renou, Renoult, Rennols, Reignolds, Reynolds, Reignolds, Rennols, Renaugh, Raynaut, Reynaut, Reinaut, Rinaldi, Rinor, Rignnow, Reynaud, Runner, Runnels, Ryno, Rynard, etc.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

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!