More Rennie's

The more I look at the Rennie's, the more I think they were quite possibly originally Irish in origin.  I've had my father's y-DNA tested, and he's M222+, otherwise known as the Niall of the Nine Hostages haplotype which is very common in northern Ireland and southwest Scotland.

Peter Rennie (1818-1870) was the son of Peter Rennie and Mary Martin.

I've checked ScotlandsPeople, and in the Statutory Records, there is a Mary Martin Rennie who died in 1860, at the age of 76.  Her husband's name is not listed (only that she was the widow of a laborer).  However, her age is roughly correct for the three baptism records I've found, and there is no other Mary Martin Rennie in the Old Parish records or in the Catholic records other than Mary Martin, wife of Peter.

It's still circumstantial, after all it's always possible this is another Mary Martin Rennie who perhaps never had children, but for me this is enough confirmation that I have the correct Mary.

Proceeding along, Mary Martin Rennie's parents are listed as Peter Martin (a stonemason) and Mary Timmoney.

Martin of course is a very common surname and can be of either Scottish or Irish origin.  Timmoney (and various other spellings) however is most certainly of Irish origin.  But what we don't know is when her family came to Scotland from Ireland.

To my knowledge, this line has always been Catholic.  I haven't found anything to contradict that (yet), but also the records pre-1855 in Scotland are rather patchy.  It's possible they converted from Church of Scotland/Ireland, most likely through marriage.

So there I am.  Still searching, still with no certainty whether my Rennie's were Scottish or Irish.