--- title: Renew and Return description: Renew and Return image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Renew-Carpenter-1-244x300-1.png --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Renew and Return [April 08, 2022](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/04/renew-and-return) [Critical Analysis](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis), [American History](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history), [Serendipity](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/serendipity), [Brick Walls](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/brick-walls), [Object Lessons](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons), [Family stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories), [Road Trips](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) [Christopher C. Child](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/cchild) [![](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Renew-Carpenter-1-244x300-1.png?width=244&height=300&name=Renew-Carpenter-1-244x300-1.png)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Renew-Carpenter-1-1.png) Courtesy of Nathaniel Lane Taylor In my recent [post](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/01/round-and-round/) on the Round family of Swansea, Massachusetts, I noted that the forename of my ancestor Renew (Carpenter) Round, was frequently repeated (or *renewed*). Renew was named for her paternal grandmother, Renew (Weeks) Carpenter, who died in 1703, and was buried in a part of Swansea that is now in Barrington, Rhode Island. She was “Renew the first,” and after my last post I learned from Nathaniel Lane Taylor, editor of [*The American Genealogist*](https://americangenealogist.com/), that her footstone has a story of its own. Renew (Weeks) Carpenter was buried at Nockum Hill Burial Ground, where her [headstone](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6760935/renew-carpenter) stands today. However, her footstone, shown at left, is in the custody of the [Barrington Preservation Society](https://barringtonpreservation.org/), cataloged as Accession No. 1990.4. Nat showed me the five-page summary explaining how the footstone came into the possession of the Barrington Preservation Society. The summary also noted that Renew “is known to be the ancestor of three United States presidents: James A. Garfield, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. It is a statistical certainty that Renew has thousands – probably tens of thousands – of living descendants today.” I’m grateful that her footstone has been preserved, with a concise summary of interest to Renew’s descendants. ### I descend from Renew (Weeks) Carpenter twice through her children Jotham and Elizabeth, making my mother’s paternal grandparents fifth cousins three times removed. I descend from Renew (Weeks) Carpenter twice through her children Jotham and Elizabeth, making my mother’s paternal grandparents fifth cousins three times removed. This is certainly one of the closer coincidental kinships of my ancestors, as my great-grandparents were from Illinois and New York and married in Kansas. As shown on the chart below, I found the name Renew six times over five generations among descendants of William and Elizabeth Weeks. The six Renews lived between 1660 and 1855. The longer line of Renews was partially covered in a recently published book I co-authored, [*Descendants of John Lippitt of Providence and Warwick, Rhode Island*](https://shop.americanancestors.org/products/descendants-of-john-lippitt-of-providence-and-warwick-rhode-island). The “last” Renew I found was Renew (Eddy) Howland, who is buried in Webster, Massachusetts, where my parents live today.  The “first” Renew also had a nephew named *Return*, but I doubt either name had anything to do with overdue library books! [![](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Renews-chart-1-1.png?width=1200&height=600&name=Renews-chart-1-1.png)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Renews-chart-1-1.png) Click on image to expand it. ### Note For further treatment on the Weeks and Carpenter families above, see Mary Lovering Holman, [*Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller*](https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1037749), 1: 261-75. For the Eddy generations, see [*The Eddy Family in America*](https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1017841), 114-15, 190 (in addition of the Lippitt genealogy mentioned above). ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/04/renew-and-return](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/04/renew-and-return) - - - More - - ![Christopher C. Child](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Chris_Child_Jan25.jpg) ## About Christopher C. Child Chris Child has worked for various departments at American Ancestors since 1997 and became a full-time employee in July 2003. He has been a member of American Ancestors since the age of eleven. He has written several articles in American Ancestors, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and The Mayflower Descendant. He is the co-editor of The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton (American Ancestors, 2011), co-author of The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2011) and Ancestors and Descendants of George Rufus and Alice Nelson Pratt (Newbury Street Press, 2013), and author of The Nelson Family of Rowley, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2014). Chris holds a B.A. in history from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Areas of expertise: Southern New England, especially Connecticut; New York; ancestry of notable figures, especially presidents; genetics and genealogy; African-American and Native-American genealogy, 19th and 20th Century research, westward migrations out of New England, and applying to hereditary societies. Chris has lectured on these topics and edits the genetics and genealogy column for American Ancestors.[View all posts by Christopher C. 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