Dutch Genealogy from Holland

Excellent work up on the van Rens's and related people in Overasselt, Holland.. This page in in Dutch so translation are in order.

Family genealogy from Antoon (Toon) van Rens July 2011. He writes: This is the most complete and connected information in the family- the oldest things of the families.
Van Rens go back to 1450 but it is little information and you cant connect it. All the people with the name van rens ,van rengs , and van rensch are family in the whole world.

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Search for Dutch van Rens Connection - Gerit or back to 1200's?

"I just returned from a trip to Holland. Visited the archives of Horst(Limberg) again. I found a tombstone of your and our ancester Gerrit(Gerard) van Rens. It says , "Here lies buried Gerit van Rens deceased Aº 1663 the 22nd of March and Willemken Verheyen his (house)wife deceased Aº 1641 on 26th February. Pray God for their souls." This is the oldest van Rens that we can trace back without interruption of the pedigree. I have older descendents; 5 have been burnt(1400's) but those need further evaluation. Mr. Theo van Rensch wrote to me- he is related to us, as are the van Rengs people. They all descend from this Gerit van Rens who was born somewhere in the 1590-1600's." Erik van Rens (April 19,1994)" 

Note from Erik van Rens 12/27/15. 
Origin of the Van Rens family lies in the city of Horst, in the province of Limburg, The Netherlands. This town lies close to the border with Germany, and through the ages has been alternatingly a part of The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and France. They speak a language- "Limburgs"- which is now classified as a lower Franconian language, extending into Belgium and Germany, centered around Koln (Cologne).

The name Van Rens indicates a place and it is not a patronimical. The place in question most likely is "te Rens" or Rens Plaats/Rengs Plaats, referring to a farm in the hamlet of Hegelsom, next to Horst. In the past, Rens has also been spelled as Rensch or Rengs.

The name Van Rens occurs first in the 1400's in the annals of Horst. Jan van Rens was a member of the city council and was mentioned in documents dating to 1547, 1550 and 1555.
In 1584 Gerard van Rens is mentioned as a council member as well. They used a seal which is the the basis of the family crest. The cross of Gerrit's tombstone of 1633 is added to this.
Court documents mention Jacob van Rens, who was sued for violence, infidelity and starting a riot. Later on he was involved in several other cases.... He did leave his estate to charity, so he was not all bad. He likely is our direct ancestor.

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Key letters from Sarah van Rens- Discovery

The search for the Dutch connection has long alluded us until the arrival in the States of Dr. Erik and Sarah van Rens from Holland. Their geneaological skills are terrific and they're researching both sides of the family(Wisconsin and Holland) to make the connection. There is a small pocket of van Rens in South Holland(Limberg) and a small pocket in Wisconsin. I am including Erik and Sarah's letters below. If you can't understand the context of the letters give a call or write a note.(Chuck)
First Letter
I  found your grandmother, Alma Tickler, quite by accident, while browsing
through the Brown county 1910 census of Green Bay city, enumeration District 8
sheet 12 line 48.

She is listed as living with the Heintz family as a servant, age 24, born in
Wisconsin, with father born in Holland and mother born in Wisconsin. Do you
know when she married Herman Van Rens? I also copied a couple of Tickler
families I found in the 1910 census but I don't think these were her parents--
one was a Theodore J. Tickler, born in Wisconsin, 45 years old in 1910 both
his parents born in Holland, and his wife Mary, age 44, born in Holland, both
her parents born in Holland, she immigrated in 1867 . I also found a Albert J
Tickler, age 58 widowed, born in Holland with both parents born in Holland,
immigrating in 1855. he had 4 children still living with him: Mary 32, Emily
30, Albert M 23, and Josephine 20. 

Ida Schreuder's book, Dutch Catholic immigrant Settlement in Wisconsin,
1850-1905 is pretty dry reading, full of solid statistical research. she
touches on several of the communities where Van Renses settled. One quote in
particular I take issue with: on page 88 she writes, "While immigrant
settlers from the province of Noord-Brabant were interspersed among immigrant
settlers from the province of Limburg in the lower part of the[Fox River]
valley, no Limburg immigrants settled among the original Noord-Brabant
settlers in Kaukauna Township." Most all the van Renses that we know of
came from a fairly small region in the province of Limburg. In the 1880
census John van Rens and his family were living in Kaukauna. Either Ms
Schreuder's information is wrong, or John van Rens's branch of the family
had moved out of Limburg to Noord Brabant before moving on to the USA. 

The way to find this out is to request the Dutch Emigration records of both
those provinces (Landverhuizing Lijsten) , which listed all the people that
moved, where they came from, where they were going and why they moved. I'm
trying to find out how to get this record. Hopefully it's indexed, so we can
get the names of all Van Renses who immigrated to the US. 

Right now we know of 4: 1) Jan van Rens,age 43 in 1873= birth year 1830(who
may not be our John born in Nov 1828), 2) Martin van Rens, born in 1836, both
of these listed on the Ships Manifest Index 1820-1880 as arriving in NY in
April 1873) 3) Bernard van Rens, born in Sevenum May 10, 1830, who died in
Wisconsin in 1884 and most probably immigrated in 1884 as we see on a census
that his wife Gertrude Jansen van Rens immigrated that year, and 4) Theodore
van Rengs, born in 1864 who immigrated in April 1884 (we have his 1886
declaration of intent to become a US citizen made in brown county)and who we
think is Bernard's son.

One interesting note--it would be cool if this works out-- we were reading
through the probate court records of Erik's great great grandfather, Theodore
van Rengs, who died in Sevenum (province of Limburg) on 8 January 1860. His
children are listed, most probably in birth order :Joannes van Rengs(could be
our john?)worker living in Grubbenvorst, Bernard van Rengs worker in Sevenum,
Herman van Rengs blacksmith in Blerick (this is Erik's great grandfather and
we know he was born in 1835 which would put Joannes(John) first at 1828 and
Bernard second at 1830,) 4 other children are mentioned. When we go in July
we'll have to see if we can find the family in the local
census(Bevolkingsregister) in 1840-1850. 

I'm still waiting for the 1900 Brown Co census, which will verify when our
John van Rens immigrated to the US. I talked to a nice gentleman in the UWGB
area research center and requested that he check the Brown and Outagamie
counties files of declaration of intent to become a US citizen for all Van
Renses. He' also going to check the 1895 state census for van Renses."
Sarah van Rens(5-23-97)

"I also wrote to a very distant cousin, (and I mean very, but he is related)
Theo van Rensch, who works in the Dutch National Archives in Maastricht,
Limburg. He had written to Erik several years ago and claimed that he could
trace the Van Rens line back to the 1200s! I also sent him info on the
Wisconsin branch, as he had requested it. He may be the one to bite the
bullet and write the family history, although I understand that Erik's uncle,
Ger van Rens has also done allot of research and had also mentioned that
possibility." Sarah van Rens (5-2-97)

Second Letter
Feb 12. 1998
Dear Judy and Chuck,

This summer while we were in Holland, Erik and I took one day to go researching. We were on on way to Horst in Limberg, where our branch id from, when we passed a highway exit that said Overasselt. It seemed familiar, so we got off there, found the county courthouse for OVERASSELT in HEUMAN, in the province of GELDERLAND and there found your people. It was so exciting, I was down in a large safe in the basement, marking records to be copied. Erik took the girls for lunch and I did not even notice how much time had gone by until he came to get me. The building had been closed and all the workers had left for the day. He talked someone into opening the building so he could come and let me out.

Anyway, I found your great greatfather’s birth certificate(John van Rens 1828), your great great grandfather’s birth certificate(Jan van Rens 1788) and your great great great grandfather’s death certificate(Jan van Rens about 1746 died 1812) on the van Rens side and also went back a couple more generations on the Schel side too. I have copies of birth records of sisters and brothers as well as some marriage records listed above.

I think that brothers Jan(1828) and Martin (1836) may have come to Wisconsin because their sister and husband Johannes van Abel left about 10 years earlier to go to Madison. I am trying to prove this theory and have ordered census records.

Please send your new address, we want to keep in touch with you.

We are moving to Wilmington , North Carolina in June. Erik’s office (ph. 910-791-1341) Retina of Coastal Carolina, 1606 Wellington Ave, Wilmington, NC 28401.

Our very best to you all--

Love Sarah