The Family of S.K. Ringo and Nancy Walker
(Known to the Dick T. & Mary J (Ringo) Sharp family as Pap and Mam)
Ringo, S. K. {Skid} (i2579), b.1864 - Marriage 1888 to Walker, Nancy (D. Or C. M.) (i3422), b.1865-d.1941
*589 viii. (For numbering system - see below) S. K. Ringo was born in Illinois 28 FEB 1864. He married Nancy (D. Or C. M.) Walker 4 JUL 1888 in Shelby County, Illinois. Nancy was born APR 1865 in Shelby County, Illinois. Nancy died after 1941 in Shelby County, Illinois, at age unknown. (using math - 76; however, as of this writing the truth is unknown)
Children of S.K. (Skid) Ringo and Nancy Walker: Mary Jane (Jennie) Ringo (married Dick Taylor Sharp )
Parents of S.K. (Skid) Ringo are Lewis Washington Ringo and Margaret Chaney Vest
166. Lewis Washington7 Ringo (Cornelius6, Philip5, Henry4, Judge Philip3, Albertus Philipszen2, Philip Janszen1) was born in Montgomery County, Kentucky 6 DEC 1822. Lewis died 20 NOV 1881 in Shelby County, Illinois, at age 58. Married to Vest, Margaret Chaney b.1823-d.1883
Lewis Washington Ringo (*+ 166 xiv. Lewis Washington Ringo b 6 DEC 1822) son of + 63 ii. Cornelius Ringo (b 7 JUN 1775.(154) ) and Elizabeth (_____)
63. Cornelius6 Ringo (Philip5, Henry4, Judge Philip3, Albertus Philipszen2, Philip Janszen1)(330) was born in Loudoun County, Virginia 7 JUN 1775.(331) Cornelius died 1846 in Clark County, Illinois, at age 71.(332)
He married three times. He married Nancy Frazer 26 OCT 1797 in Montgomery County, Kentucky.(333) Nancy was born about 1779.(334) (Additional notes for Nancy Frazer(335)) Nancy died 1810 at age 31.(336) He married Elizabeth (_____) 1811.(337) Elizabeth was born 1787 in Maryland.(338) (Additional notes for Elizabeth (_____)(339)) He married Mary Combs 23 NOV 1831.(340) (Additional notes for Mary Combs(341)) Polly died after 1855 at age unknown.
Cornelius Ringo son of Philip Ringo and Margaret Lewis
33. Philip5 Ringo (Henry4, Judge Philip3, Albertus Philipszen2, Philip Janszen1)(140) was born in Hopewell Twp., Hunterdon County, New Jersey 23 AUG 1750.(141) Philip died 10 MAR 1785 in Loudoun County, Virginia, at age 34.(142)
He married Margaret Lewis about 1772 in Virginia.(143) (Additional notes for Margaret Lewis(144)) PHILIP RINGO was the first son of Henry Ringo and Margaret Major.
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The Sharp & Ringo Ancestry join at the Sixth Generation (via S.K. Ringo) of the Ringo family of America at http://www.ringofamilyhistory.com
Robert B. Ringo
3701 Cross Creek Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95403-0925
(707) 523-2044
Send email to preparer:
bobringo@ringofamilyhistory.com
Ultimate Family Tree, ver 2.0
RFHTEST Project Version 2364
August 7, 1997
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FOREWORD
PHILIP JANSZEN RINGO (1), the "Auctor Generis Americanus," is the first white man of that family name to come to America and from him come the several thousand descendants detailed in the "Line of" Volumes III through X of the Ringo Family History Series.
In 1928, when I first became involved in its research, the Ringo family had been in America for close to three hundred years and they had lost track of their roots!
During that period the family had drifted down the eastern seaboard from New York to New Jersey and then on to Virginia. Near the end of the eighteenth century the surviving members of the family, who would carry on the name, were two brothers, Henry (1D2B) and Cornelius (1D2E), who lived in nearby counties of that state. From the seven sons of the former and the two sons of the latter would come all later descendants.
As the 'western Lands" in Kentucky began to be settled, the two brothers and all their sons, save one, crossed the mountains to move there. Later the sons and their children carried on the pursuit of new land, traveling into Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas. From those places they spread further to Texas before it became a republic and, into Kansas, Nebraska and what became Oklahoma. Many even made the dangerous trek across the desert to California and the Pacific Northwest.
In the process the various branches of the family multiplied and, as they moved, lost touch with each other. The one son, in the fifth generation, who did not go west to Kentucky, fathered a new "lost tribe' who probably paused in South Carolina, settled in Georgia but later moved on to Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. Other branches as they settled in new territories were delighted to discover Ringo cousins already there. Two isolated branches even wound up changing the spelling their family name.
Individual branches of the family, in most cases, did keep record of their progeny by use of the Family Bible, but newfound relatives, while positive they were so, found it difficult to unravel their connection. There simply was no mechanism to allow a family of such geographical fragmentation to keep track of itself. Old documents, old letters and word of mouth passage of family stories and traditions helped, but by the beginning of the twentieth century, solid information on the family and its origins were sadly lacking and its background had become murky.
Conjecture as to the original homeland of the Ringo family had, by now, included nearly every country in Europe and also the British Isles.
By the late nineteen-twenties one seemingly consistent story of its early history was widely circulated and believed. This narrative was to the effect that "the family was German and that a Philip Ringo, who had married a Jane Cook in the town of Emden in Germany, had migrated from there to New Jersey about 1734."
The tradition was correct in only a few particulars. There had been a Philip Ringo (1D2), who had married a Jane Cook but this took place in 1721 in the county of Hunterdon in the colony of New Jersey; however, this Philip Ringo was the grandson of the original immigrant. By 1734 the Ringo family had been in America for nearly one hundred years!
My own involvement in genealogical research, a pursuit I had previously thought reserved for the very elderly, was heightened during my college years, when I discovered that interested persons would actually pay to have such work done. For several years this became an important supplement to my savings as I strove to get a higher education. My customers in those days were all of families unrelated to me. Research on my own family has, on its own account, ever been a labor of love and always freely given.
During one such commission in the early nineteen-thirties for a lady of Knickerbocker ancestry, I came across the printed record of the baptisms and marriages of the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam (New York City). After completion of my task, I idly browsed through the index. There, much to my surprise, I found several persons listed under the name of Ringo. Beyond that, the first names given were familiar ones. It was time to get a real professional involved!
The professional, who came to my aid, was an erudite, talented and uncompromising Dutchman, whose credentials as an archivist and genealogist were impeccable. His name was Louis P. de Boer and he had come to America from the old country to become Chief of the Manuscripts and Special Collections of the New York State Library. This institution located at Albany contained most of the original records of the settlement of the New Netherlands and its seat of government, New Amsterdam. Just prior to taking over his duties in the new position, a tragic fire had badly damaged many of the Dutch records there.
Despite the setback to his plans, De Boer decided to stay in this country and by the time of my first contact during the economic depression of those years, he was suffering badly from tuberculosis. He was still doing some genealogical research, while moving periodically around the United States seeking a climate which might afford him some relief. After a brief correspondence he finally agreed to assist in this phase of the early Ringo research, acting as a teacher and consultant, with the understanding that I would do all the research under his guidance.
Professor de Boer was a tough taskmaster but an excellent instructor. The pittance, which he agreed to accept, was borne equally between myself and Otis O. Ringo, who had fallen heir in 1929 to the family papers of his father, Nathaniel U. Ringo, upon his death.
The numbered missives back and forth between de Boer and myself represented a liberal and historical education, which involved all the correct elements of research. They also involved much more than the history of the Dutch settlements in America, the story of the Dutch West Indies Company, and the backdrop of the religious persecutions and wars in the Low Countries of Europe, whose refugees became the new settlers for this venture.
In addition there was a need, on my part, to understand the Dutch patronymic name system, which resulted in a last name change every generation, their method of giving first names to their children relating to their paternal and maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts, and that the Dutch themselves were in the seventeenth century just beginning to evolve family names. In addition I was to learn a little of the many factors which caused the tiny settlement of New Amsterdam to be so heterogeneous in nature composed of people from many different background and nationalities. It was fascinating to learn that Manhattan was the early American melting pot long before Ellis Island ever got its name.
The correspondence and research with Louis P. de Boer started in March of 1933 and lasted over a year. It was highly illuminating and most productive. Hard data was secured and the connection between the Ringos of New Amsterdam and the Ringos of Hunterdon County, New Jersey was firmly established and documented.
From this research came a revival of interest by many who were descendants of the earlier Ringos, and new researchers sprang up to add helpful new information to the known family data. There was much curiosity regarding the new facts established by the project with de Boer, and copies of our correspondence were passed around among many interested persons.
While this did have the value of disseminating new and vital information, unfortunately it also brought about individual and personal interpretations of some tentative possibilities, which were not confirmed by further research. The absence of the full picture and the desire to get the new material into some sort of print sadly led to wide distribution of incomplete material, which contained erroneous information now accepted as gospel.
This has caused continuing confusion and consternation to new generations of genealogists and family researchers and created a real need to correct at least a few of them before proceeding into the known history of the first five generations of the Ringo family in America.
One such involved the "Three Brothers" theory, which states that the first Ringo in America, Philip Janazen Ringo, was one of three brothers, who came to New Amsterdam. This is completely incorrect and apparently grew out of someone's reading of the de Boer letters in which he suggested that I check out whether there could possibly be any connection between Philip and two Dutchmen there, who used the patronymic name, "Jensen" or "Janszen" (son of Jan) and who also came to New Amsterdam from the province of Zeeland in the United Netherlands. There was no connection found. In fact, there is solid evidence that in early days in the New Netherlands, Philip Ringo had no close living relatives.
Another misunderstanding concerns the idea that the name of Philip's father was "Janazen" Ringo. As written by a Dutch scribe the father's name would have been written as "Jan" not "Janezen." If the writer was fluent in French, he would have written the name of the father as "Jean." If the name were written by an Englishman the father's name would have been written as "John Ringo." At a time when most Dutchmen were still using patronymic names, which changed every generation, Philip already had a permanent last name. It was "Ringo"!
David Leer Ringo 6/1/1982
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERING SYSTEM
There are many systems of numbering used in genealogy. The essential requirement is that each individual has a number for identification. The numbering system used in this series is one that David Leer Ringo used when he set up the notebooks of family group sheets.
The numbering is very simple, using a system of numerals for one generation and letters for the next. Thus the immigrant ancestor, Philip Janssen Ringo, is number 1 and his fourth child, Albertus is 1D. Albertus' second child, Philip, becomes 1D2. Philip had five children, the second being Henry 1D2B and the fifth being Cornelius 1D2E. All persons carrying the Ringo name are descended from one of these two sons.