Each project member brings a rich family history and the opportunity to connect with new cousins. We hope the project will facilitate new discoveries of kinship and shared heritage, that it will help members understand their family lines and hopefully make it possible for some members to move past ‘brick walls’ that have stood in their way, perhaps for generations.

Renshaw descendants are located throughout the US and many, but not all, have genealogical brick walls which prohibit them from extending their research back to the early 1700s in one of the original 13 colonies. Thus the project also endeavors to establish DNA reference lines to link to these early US Renshaw immigrant lines. Special emphasis will be placed on the early migration of the Renshaws to Pennsylvania,Virginia, and the Carolinas in the 1700s.

In addition, there are Renshaw descendants around the world with similar issues. Many lines are out of England, but some are from Germany and other countries. Some have always born the surname Renshaw. Others have evolved through name changes, such as Ranchahous to Renshaw.

While Y-DNA research remains a principal objective of this project, autosomal DNA testing, such as FTDNA’s Family Finder, has become more popular. It is appropriate that our project includes and welcomes members who have taken other DNA tests.  Now anyone with Renshaw heritage and an interest in family history can join! Autosomal DNA / auDNA Family Finder test subjects should have an identified Renshaw surnamed direct ancestor on their ancestor chart within the past five generations, or have strong matches to other Family Finder test subjects who have Renshaw surnamed ancestors.

If you or a family member have previously tested your autosomal DNA at 23andMe© or AncestryDNA™, you may transfer your results to Family Tree DNA by uploading your raw data file. For more information, check this link.

There are several goals for this project:

1. To provide a forum for Renshaw descendants and researchers to establish a DNA "signature", or haplotype, for their known line of descent, then attempt, by comparison with other participants, to discover or confirm a connection with others.

2. To find the MRCA (MostRecent Common Ancestor) of the various lines surnamed Renshaw, Rencher, Runshaw, Ranshaw, Ramshaw, Wrench, etc., using Y-DNA testing in conjunction with standard paper-trail genealogy.

3. To determine the origins of the various Renshaw lines and whether the surname is original or due to a name change in the past.