When Charles L Shumway was born on 21 December 1831, in Ashford, Windham, Connecticut, United States, his father, John Palmer Shumway, was 25 and his mother, Jerusha Case Atwood, was 21. He married Irena Smith on 13 February 1856. He died on 10 March 1863, at the age of 31, and was buried in Middletown Cemetery, Middletown, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
Americanized form of French Chamois . Altered ending reflects the Canadian and American French pronunciation of the diphthong oi as ‘wé’, which in France was replaced in the 17th century by the current ‘wa’.
History: The ancestor of the Shumways was Peter Shumway, originally almost certainly Pierre Chamois from France, probably a Huguenot, who was in MA by 1675. He is listed in the (US) National Huguenot Society's register of qualified Huguenot ancestors and also in the similar register of the Huguenot Society of America.
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