When my father, Robert Runyon, finished Runyon Genealogy in 1955 with his cousin Amos Runyon, he went to publication knowing he had failed to identify the parents of his forebear, Isaac Runyon.  Nothing had changed by 1962 when they published the supplement that added new information and corrected the original work.
   

In those days, genealogical research was performed by personally traveling to libraries and court houses to pore over old records, by corresponding extensively with public officials and other genealogists, and by interviewing relatives in the hopes that someone could help answer certain questions.  Those research methods proved fruitless in locating Isaac’s ancestry.
   

My father felt certain that the answer to the riddle about Isaac would lie within a family Bible that was gathering dust in some distant cousin’s bookshelf.  It would be a matter of time, he thought, before someone would uncover the information and the mystery would be solved.
   

Fifty years later, that Bible has not yet appeared, if it ever existed at all.  And even though the Internet and other technologies have vastly improved the genealogical research, no one has been able to verify the names and lives of Isaac’s parents and siblings. 
   

Indeed, there have been many new facts that have come to light about Isaac over the past few decades.    Each of them have added pieces to the puzzle and helped trace his migration over his 80-plus years of life. 
   

The following chart attempts to chronicle in one place everything that Runyon researchers currently know about Isaac.  Our goal in compiling this information is to transfer this knowledge to other genealogists so that they can either add additional pieces or use this information as background to seek new facts.  (Click on these titles when the source column in the below chronology references Runyon Genealogy or Supplement to Runyon Genealogy. You can download both books in a single file and use the search function in your pdf viewer to find the cited reference.)
   

Please note that the chart’s spelling of Runyon will vary depending on how it was cited in the source.
   

We’ll be happy to update this data if anyone has additional information or uncovers new research, however small.  If you send us something about Isaac or his family, please cite the documentation, include the source of the information and tell us how you’d like your research to be credited.

 

Amali Runyon Perkins

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