Grimshaw, Immigrants to Michigan from Lancashire and Scotland

(Note: Webpage in preparation)

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Webpage Credits

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References

Thanks go to Thomas William Grimshaw and his father, William Frederick Grimshaw, for providing the information on this webpage.

James Grimshaw (?, England – ?, MI?) & Katherine Barnett (?, Scotland - ? MI?))

|---Justice Andrew Grimshaw* (? - ?, MI?) & unk

|---|---Henry Alexander Grimshaw (?) & Justine Walker

|---|---|---Thomas Eugene Grimshaw 

|---|---|---Richard Grimshaw

|---|---|---Violet Grimshaw (?) & Philip Napolitano

|---Justice Andrew Grimshaw* (? - ca 1938, MI?) & Alma unk

|---|---William Frederic Grimshaw (1921 - ?) & Janice Mildred Stables

|---|---|---Thomas William Grimshaw (1952 - ) & Colette Xochilt Christian Chevillion

|---|---|---|---Emilio Thomas Grimshaw (1989 - 1989)

|---|---|---|---William Henry Thomas Grimshaw (1991 - )

|---|---|---|---John David Alexander Grimshaw (1996 - )

|---|---|---Karen Ann Grimshaw (?) & Karl Bloomquist

|---|---|---|---Bonnie Lee Bloomquist

|---Unknown Grimshaw (twin of Justice)

|---Alexander Grimshaw & Jane ?

|---|---Ford Grimshaw

|---|---Ruth Grimshaw

|---Violet Grimshaw & Walter Rogers

February 25, 2004

Thomas,

Great website! Thanks so much for making this available through the public domain. I am apparently a descendent of the Irish line, but don't know too much. My father is 82 & had a genealogy chart done in the 60's which we are trying to find & will forward per your directions. I showed my 12 year old son this site and he now has a very new sense of pride about our 1,000 year old line, which previously I didn't know too much about. Viva la WWW!

Best Wishes

Thomas William Grimshaw

aka: Thom Grimshaw

Belize, Central America

 

February 25, 2004

Thomas,

Thanks for the RSVP. I am a marine/coastal resource development specialist here, and do a lot of work in aquaculture, environmental evaluations, marine conservation, remote sensing & planning. Came here in 1984 from Michigan, where I grew up & went to school (UM) and where dad still resides, surprised we didn't meet [when you visited Belize]. (I was working on my fish farm back then – but now have a consulting business based out of Belmopan). Glad to forward you the info if/when we find it. The website thing could be interesting, but want to see if I can build some of the linkages first. Also glad to see the book/pamphlet. You can send to:

Thom Grimshaw

PO Box 528 Belmopan

Belize Central America

Again, thanks for everything, past & present.

Best

T

 

February 26, 2004

Thomas,

You could try contacting my dad, …

What I can remember of family history on my father's side is as follows: Dad is: William Fredrick Grimshaw, born 1921 by second marriage of his father, Fredrick (mn?) Grimshaw to wife Alma (mdnn?). I was born in 1952, have always been regarded as the proverbial black sheep of the family, and am still alive (by most accounts). I have had 3 sons, the first of which died at 9 weeks age (Emilio Thomas, d1989), and the second two are William Henry Thomas (b1991), and John David Alexander (b1996), both living (except on Saturday mornings). I have one sister, Karen Ann, who married a Swede: Karl (mn?) Bloomquist. They have 1 daughter (Bonnie Lee).

Grandpa Frederick died when my dad was 17 (~1938?). Fredrick Grimshaw's first wife bore him one son (to my knowledge) by the name of Henry Alexander Grimshaw, who married Justine Walker, sister (I think) to Charles walker, the Everseal Tycoon of Northville Mich (another 'fortuitous' marriage in the Grimshaw line, long story). Henry died around 1979 (I was traipsing through the jungles of Paraguay at the time doing a museum expedition), and he was survived by 2 sons & 1 daughter: Thomas Eugene Grimshaw, Richard (mn?) Grimshaw, and Violet (mn?) Grimshaw/Napolitano (sp?), all living to my knowledge, and people I knew as a boy. Both sons of my dad's half brother had daughters, so I was the last son of Frederick's line (before my two sons). Violet was named for her aunt who was married to Charles Walker (as above). When I was a boy of ~ 6 or 7, I remember my dad taking me to an 'uncles' house in the Detroit area or somewhere within a day's drive of my childhood home in Livonia Michigan. His name was Dick Grimshaw, who was described as my dad's cousin (I remember this because he showed us his basement handgun collection, which was very impressive to a kid that was into playing cowboys & Indians - I could still draw a picture of him & the setting from memory). My dad also had (has) a female cousin named Marylin (ln?) who lived(s) in Vermont, and whom I met on two occasions. So perhaps John T. Grimshaw (of below reference) & Frederick (?) Grimshaw (my grandfather) were brothers (a jump, I know, but the timing seems about right). That is about my entire memory bank on the Frederick Grimshaw line from Lower Michigan. Hope it can fill in some gaps somewhere.

Best

T

 

February 26, 2004

Some more from dad (William Frederick Grimshaw):

My Grandma Grimshaw was from Montrose, Scotland located on the North Sea about 100 miles N of Lancashire. She was a Barnett - of the Lindsay Clan; her father was a sea captain. She used to refer to her husband as an "English Border Thief" because of his heritage just S of Scotland.

My Grandfather James Grimshaw, a native of Lancashire, was an architect - a very quiet, gentle and intelligent man whose family physical image and mind were very much like my Father's and his first son, my half brother's - Henry; and my Father's brother Alexander - who was the chief manufacturing executive of a major Michigan machine tool firm, the name of which I can't recall just now. I'll think of it just after I send this e-mail.

Little by little, right?

T

 

February 26, 2004

Tom,

See more below...from dad.

----- Original Message -----

From: "grimshaw" <grimshaw@wmich.edu>

To: "Thom Grimshaw / Ecoworks" <ecoworks@btl.net>

Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 5:13 PM

Subject: Re: Grimshaworigin.org/etc...

My father's name is Justus Grimshaw – Justus being that of a very venerable Pauline/Christian" disciple name – meaning "The Just". His life work was as a chemist, and as I recall employed by a major Detroit pharmaceutical firm such as Parke Davis. I still need to recall the exact name of the firm which is no longer in business. My father was deeply concerned with advancement of ethics in everyday practice. I should add he also was a mathematician! He had great difficulty understanding why I could not understand that in geometry "the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides." Note, of course that I remember this fact to this day when I am nearly 83 years old! (footnote from Thom Grimshaw: interestingly, I had the highest scores in the state of Michigan for spatial relations when I was around 14, must be we have a gene for this stuff-grin) He "introduced" me to the major thought-systems among the world's religions. He did not try to "convert" me to any – only to guide me to understand them. He was - as a cousin of mine said -"The wisest man I have ever known".

 

February 27, 2004

Thomas,

More recollections from dad:

The Grimshaw Clan Saga is becoming increasingly complex. Some of my reminiscencings are finding closed doors or no doors, so to speak. Other reasons may be time, aging, forgetfulness, not knowing to begin with, On the matter of "Dick and the gun collection" my mind draws a complete blank - at the moment. I did have an uncle, by marriage - one of my mother's sisters' husband, named George Mitchell - who had a modest gun collection, and with whom I was friends as a boy. But I doubt if he was still alive when you were a little boy.

My father was a twin but that brother passed on before my time, I imagine. My father's other brother, Alexander (Alex) I do remember very well - he and his family lived in the Detroit region when I was quite young and then moved to Muskegon, Michigan, where he worked as an executive in a major machine tool firm - the name of which still eludes me. Alex and his wife Jane had two children: Ford and Ruth - both of whom I have little memory. Ford was at one point a scientist or engineer of one kind; later, I believe he became a doctor of medicine, and I understand practices in Muskegon.

My father had a sister, Violet; and her husband's name was Walter Rogers. He was a pictorial artist …. The family story was that he painted 200 pictures of one view of a building in downtown Detroit because he was obsessed with it. My Aunt Violet was a librarian in the Detroit system - a very intelligent, scholarly lady - who wanted me to become a librarian. I did give the idea thought for a while, but then went on to other things. However, as I grew up living across the street from a branch library in mid-town Detroit, I - both with my father and by myself spent a great deal of time there. I later became knowledgeable of all the bookstores in Detroit and their owners. And somewhere along the line began collecting books for my own library. At one time my collection numbered close to 3,000 volumes - more than I could store and I began to divest myself of almost 1,500 of them - giving many to the Redford Union School system where I taught English for five years or so. So today I doubt if I have more than 900. Not long ago I donated some 150 business-related books to a college in Adrian, Michigan.

My father was a very well-read man! One of the first significant books he gave me, when I was about 12, was Wells' Outline of History - which remained one of my favorites for perhaps 50 years. I should add that I minored in history at Michigan State University.

I will have to search through my papers to see if I still have family-history papers related to my/our Grimshaw Clan connections. I rather vaguely recall that a second main-line Grimshaw family lived in Detroit when we did; although we had no connections to or with them. I discovered this when I was researching the Grimshaw Clan's development many years ago. At that time I also learned that the majority of Grimshaw families in North America live in Canada - not very many in the USA. However the name is almost as common in England as is Smith. Perhaps this is why I gave up my searching.

My Grandfather Grimshaw who was born and raised in Lancashire may have had brothers and sisters - in England, Canada, and here - I just don't know. Similarly, I have no idea if my Grandmother, Katherine Barnett Grimshaw had brothers and sisters.

You asked whether I have a Grimshaw family tree. I may have papers from which one could be constructed, I won't t know until I search. But I am not aware of a "tree". On the other hand I may still have the Obershulte family tree, which my cousin Richard Oberschulte constructed some forty years earlier. He passed on some 20 years ago - and I have no knowledge whatsoever of his wife or two sons' where-abouts.

'Til there is more to report –

 

February 27, 2004

Thomas,

The site is indeed shaping up!. (Work is a little crazy here today so only just looked). Dick Grimshaw (down by Marylin) is wrong, so please just strike. Marylin, turns out, was from matriarchal line, so you can strike that as well. I will try to make further corrections through the course of the day. Violet’s husband, I remember now was Philip Napolitano.

As for scrubbing, its your call as to right security level, since I am only aware of, but not really familiar with, protocol in area of identity theft (great novel idea though).

Again, thanks

T

 

February 27, 2004

Mother: Janice Mildred Stables/Grimshaw

Wife: Colette Xochilt Christian Chevillion (French Mexican, Xochilt is name of first Christian martyr in new world),

Have to check on grandmother,

T

 

December 9, 2005

TWG: Comments from my Dad….

Who is one of two sons born to Justice Andrew Grimshaw, by different wives. My father is William Frederic; his step brother (older, but now deceased), is Henry Alexander Grimshaw, who had two sons, Thomas Eugene, and Richard (don’t remember the middle name), and one daughter, Violet, who married a Philip Nepalitano from Northville Michigan back in the 1970’s.

Dad says…

Thom: I am not aware of having any information as to the sender of the forwarded message you sent me 12/09/05 which I (believe / understand) to have been sent to you from a "Thomas W. Grimshaw"....

My father's name is Justice Andrew Grimshaw. His father's: James Grimshaw (I can't recall his 'middle' name). His wife's name is Katherine (but I can't recall her maiden name - she was born and raised in Scotland. My grandfather 'James' was born and raised in England -- the name of the town or city I no longer recall. He first emigrated to Canada and later to Detroit, Michigan. I believe there are many Grimshaws in Canada, although not likely of our same "family". My father had a sister, Violet, (my aunt) who became a librarian and later head librarian of one of Detroit's libraries. She married an artist (a painter/muralist) - whose last name I cannot now recall. Some of his work is still in the Detroit's Art Institute, I believe. My father had had a twin brother (whose name I cannot recall, and who died somewhat young); and also a younger brother, Alexander, who later settled in Muskegon, Michigan - with his wife and two children. There he became an executive in a manufacturing firm serving the automobile industry. Nearly all the family members' names and activities I have forgotten. I do recall that my uncle, Alex's son, my cousin, Ford, first became a specialist in one of the sciences, and then a doctor of medicine. I believe he still practices in the Muskegon area - at least that is what a physician whom I met a few years ago, told me. The name, family, activity and location of the daughter - cousin - I no longer remember. In a "nutshell" history (in my head) I do recall the Grimshaws all being very intelligent and successful people. And so it is I see this being true in the present "cases" as well.

Ah So!

Dad, with love.

¹Author

²Author

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Webpage posted February 2004. Updated December 2005 with addition of e-mails from Thomas William Grimshaw.