Rensin & Renzin Genealogy Information
Family History Page
The Rensin family originated in eastern Europe and migrated from there. The history of the family prior to the mid 1800’s is unclear. There was a large section of the family located in the town of Vitebsk in what is now eastern Belarus. The town was one of the most fought over in World War II and many of the public records were lost. Sometimes the name is spelled Renzin and for appearance sake in this site, we will refer to the family as a whole as Rensin rather than continuing to present the name as Rensin/Renzin.
It appears that there were two or more Rensin families in Vitebsk and therein lies the problem. We have not been able to connect the families. In addition, we have located a large family named Rensin in Buenos Aires, Argentina who have roots in the Ukraine. This group is also not currently connected.
DNA testing done by FamilyTreeDNA.com has revealed an exact 12 point Y-DNA match between Edward Rensin & Howard Rensin, showing a strong probability of an ancestral link in the recent past. This links the family tree of Simon Renzin and Mendel Renzin.
Howard Rensin (me) comes from the line descended through Harry (Hersh) Mendel Rensin who was my grandfather and we think was related through Simon Renzin . Harry Rensin said he was from Kishinev in southern Russia but listed Vitebsk as his home town on the ship's passenger manifest. I have listed the Harry Rensin family tree as learned so far on a separate page which you can get to by clicking on Simon Renzin name. You will notice that Harry is actually listed as Hersh and in some Russian papers is spelled Gersh. The descendants' tree starts with Simon.
Howard Rensin married Kathy Kallet on June 13, 1964. The Kallet family on Kathy's father's side, has traced their roots back to Herschel Kallet whose chart is available by clicking on his link. Her mother's family has roots in the Hauft family as can be seen on their chart.
The next largest collection of the Rensin family is descended from Mendel Renzin and can be viewed by clicking on his name.
The third Rensin group is principally based in Argentina and traces its roots to the Ukraine. The third Rensin group is headed by different Simon Renzin. In June 26, 2009, Hector Rensin and family from Buenos Aires were linked with a 12 point Y-DNA match test results. This now links all three (3) known family branches by DNA. No connection has yet been made between the Simon Renzin in Harry's chain and this Simon and each name is linked to a different web page. Many names repeat through the families and the generations.
We have also added a Miscellaneous page in order to include names, places, business and other Rensin or Renzin related information that we have found, and we encourage you to visit that page as well by clicking on its highlighted name.
Anyone having any information on anyone not shown in these charts named Rensin or Renzin is urged to contact me by clicking on this e-mail link and providing me with their information.