Welcome!

If you are the least bit interested in the RAYNOR family of eastern Long Island, you have come to the right place.

If you are new to genealogy, or an old, practiced hand, you are in the right place - meaning that the information gathered here can verify what you already know and/or take you all the way back to the ELIZABETH and that voyage in the spring of 1634.

Understand, this does not attempt in any way to be a directory to the world's supply of RAYNORs.  We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, an endangered species.  (A recent publisher offered a list of 2298 Raynor families with telephones under the title, "The National Registry of Living Raynors").

This work, rather, concentrates on a listing of people with a direct connection to ONE GRANDSON of the original immigrant Thurston whose name is Jonathan.  He was born at Southampton, Long Island in 1681 - no TV – quiet nights - time to start a dynasty.

Rounding up RAYNORs is not an easy task.  To quote Lorraine, the late wife of the late George Lafayette Raynor, "The trouble of it is none of you damnraynors give your right name".  She should know.  She had married 2 at different times - "Bud" (Chester S., Jr.) and "Let" (George Lafayette).  To top it off, Chester S. III is known as "Syd", his son, Chester S. IV, is "Corkey", and finally, Chester S. V is currently called "Chet".  Of course, at this writing, "Chet" is very young and could be renamed at the drop of a Chet.

In Westhampton and Westhampton Beach, L.I., NY, during the 1930s, it was no novelty being a mere Raynor.  This was especially true at some public function like High School Graduation when Principal E.J. Brong would do his best to suppress a giggle as he read off RAYNOR after RAYNOR after RAYNOR, 'ad hysterium' in the audience.

It took Mrs. Henry Howell (mother of Hampton) to make me know for certain that RAYNOR was an honorable name, and had been in America since a few years after those very same Pilgrims and the Mayflower that we heard about in grade school.  She was a very upright and positive person.  I caddied for her and her husband and son many times at their special request.  Incidentally, she was a darn good golfer in a day and time when there weren't that many lady golfers.  (Tuesdays, please).  You can only imagine what a boost it was for the lowly servant type to be elevated to a place of some importance by the employer.  Quantity no longer diminished quality.

Here and now I find myself indebted to another Howell - Stuart Payne Howell, who is no less RAYNOR than any of us with 2 parents, for his mother was Carrie Raynor Howell.  My first meeting with him was somewhat strained, since he was busy learning to walk and talk, and I was a sophisticated eight and a half year old.  My sister and I were told to call Stuart's mother "Aunt Carrie".  Innocent enough - but . . .

Talk about confusion!  Stuart's mother was Kenneth Raynor's  sister.  Stuart's father was Alice (Mrs. Frank) Bishop's brother.  Frank Bishop was my father's first cousin via his mother, Helen Fournier Raynor, and Frank's mother, Edith Fournier Bishop.  The key to this nightmare is this: as children, we all called each other's mother "aunt".  So, Alice Howell Bishop with 3 girls and 2 boys, Catherine Jessup (Mrs. Kenneth) Raynor with her 5 girls, Carrie Raynor Howell with her son and daughter, and Irene Cody (Mrs. Daniel T.) Raynor with my sister and me, managed to warp the genealogical minds of their 14 children, some of whom were actual nieces and nephews, others of whom were not related within five generations. "You can choose your friends - ".

A good many Ketchaponack area people wind up in Florida, and among these, originally from Massena, NY, was one of the teachers who got stuck with me as a "student" in Westhampton Beach, Leslie Danforth, "The Senator".  "Let" Raynor recognized Les in a grocery store in Jensen Beach, Florida, and I finally got over to see him.

He remembered me all right from my connection with that less than famous music appreciation group, "The Long Island Mountaineers," but more to the point, thought I was connected with the "Raynor with the outboard motors".

It was easy to understand how that could have happened.  In the 1930s, my grandfather, Arthur Halsey Raynor, attributed some of the mix-ups to what he thought were "5 separate and distinct families" of Raynors in the area.

In Grandpa's mind, Jess Raynor, Quiogue outboard motor king, was an entity unto himself.  That's one.

Then there was the Incorporated Village types with such famous people as Gus, Madison, Emerson, and the father of the latter 2, "Uncle Mitch", Ken, Bill, Doc, Lydia, Elijah, and some more.  That's two.

The 3rd contingent was literally "up the creek" - Beaver Dam Creek: Fletcher, Archie, Chester, Big John, Little John, Ralph, Thurston, Dan, and his father, Arthur H.

Slightly further west, near Fordham's Mill, Ansel had started a tribe of his own...group 4...and the 5th element was better known than all the rest with his wheelbarrow type transportation, rear view mirror and all, and the sign, "Russ Raynor - Organs Repaired - Pianos Tuned", wheeling down the middle of Main Street, Westhampton Beach, more interested in where he had been than where he was going.

Now, you have to understand that I'm simply naming the older folks of the day, all of whom had kids or grandkids in the WHB public school system.  This says absolutely nothing about other towns in every direction but south, each with their own supply of Raynors.  Elsewhere in this document you will find a map indicating the homes of 27 families of Raynors, in about a 3/4 mile radius from Culvertown, containing over 90 Raynors.

But Grandpa was right about the 5 groups, except they were not all that 'separate and distinct'.

It's a little more than you can expect of even a brilliant school teacher to have separated all these Raynors at the time, no less 50 years later!

While my 1937 or 8 cap is on, let me tell you a true story of a thing a young fellow by the name of Ralph Gay put on with me.  It was at one of those variety shows Mike Parlato's wife, Rica, used to direct at Mechanic's Hall as a fund raiser for the Beach Methodist Church.

Apparently, they were scraping the bottom of the local talent barrel, since we were invited to perform almost as an afterthought.  The fact that we had not really rehearsed anything didn't slow us down a whole lot - I was ad libbing the names of all the Raynors in the chorus on stage and in the audience when Ralph arrived late (as per plan A) with the excuse that he'd been hunting rabbits and the time had gotten away.  I went on introducing more Raynors when he broke in with: "Why are there so many Raynors in Westhampton Beach?"  After a thoughtful Jack Benny type pause, I came up with what I believe is my all time best one liner: "I don't know - why are there so many rabbits?"
 

Consider this - following World War II, I came home to work in the office of E. Raynor's Sons on Library Avenue in the village, the then leading home builder in the area.  A man came in one day to pay his bill for some painting he'd had done.  While he was writing the check, he said casually: 
  

"You know, this has been quite an experience." "Really?  In what way?" "Well, I came in here from the city to get the porch painted on a  house I just bought, stopped by this place and talked to an old fellow who said he would send the painter." "That was J. Mitchell Raynor, one of the original sons."  "I know - a couple of days later a guy drives up in the yard with this black Chevy coupe with ladders hanging all over it.  Said  he was Ken Raynor.  He gave me an estimate I approved, and in a few days he came back with his brother Bill." "Was the job all right?" "Just fine - so good, in fact, I dropped by the office to make arrangements to have more work done, but the guy in the office said he just handled insurance and real estate - I'd have to talk to his brother, Madison." "That was Emerson." "Right - Emerson - but the point is, I had to talk to FIVE  Raynors just to get this little porch painted!" "Yes sir - 5 Raynors!  Here is your receipt, sir.  Thank you." (It might have been better if I hadn't signed my name so big on the receipt . . . he was really talking to himself as he went out the front door. . . ) "SIX . . . six . . . SIX Raynors!"

Five years ago, to help straighten some of this out, some data entitled, "The Raynor Ancestral Line of Stuart Payne Howell, Jr." graced my mailbox.  Attached was a note including the words, "There are still many missing pieces, but I have decided to call it quits, after 19 years.  Perhaps, someone in the next generation may want to carry on the research at some point in time."

Since his recent retirement, the spark has been rekindled.  What follows represents a quarter of a century's interest and effort in the research of this one line of RAYNORs.  He could have gone fishing - he could have done any number of things with his time - but even his vacations were genealogy oriented and speaking for myself, I appreciate it, for getting accurate information at this distance from the scene (Florida) is most difficult.

Stuart Payne Howell, Jr. has been active in the Howell Family Association, his doctorate in Education, his conscientious research and yen for accuracy, both in this country and in England, and his long hours pulling it all together are gifts that future generations will be free to relish.

Roger Tory Peterson said: "If it isn't written down, it didn't happen".  Consider direct lines responsible for the birth of a child: 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great- grandparents, etc.  - doubling each generation for 13 generations in America, like my grandchildren - 4096 getting together for the birth of that one child.  These are the people we are attempting to identify.

Welcome to the world of RAYNORS as seen through the eyes of Stuart Payne Howell, Jr., 10th generation descendant of Thurston Raynor (Carrie M.9, Frederick W.8, Elijah P.7, William6, William5, William4, Jonathan3, Jonathan2, Thurston1)!

 July 1992