Winans Family Genealogy Papers

The Winans family were amongst the early Dutch settlers of Staten Island. They entered into Monroe County, New York in the persons of Theodore Edward Winans and Cynthia Caroline Root, who were amongst the earliest settlers in the present town of Chili. Their son Ira Winans, the primary creator of this collection, was born December 26, 1839. His family moved to Rush, New York, while he was a child. Ira Winans studied as a young man at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. By 1861, he was in New York City, where he enlisted as a lieutenant in the 99th New York Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. By the war's end, he was serving with the 25th U.S. Infantry Regiment, a regular army unit, as a major. Following the war, Ira Winans returned to Rochester, where he found work as a traveling salesman for Hubbard, Aldridge and Miller, a furniture manufacturer; he would stay in this line of work for the rest of his career. On June 21, 1870, Ira married Sarah Edwards Peck in Roxbury, Massachusetts. They would make their home at 7 Buffalo Street in Rochester, though they would move several times in the ensuing decades. Together, they had six children: Edwin Peck (1871-1875), Henry Edwards (1873-1946), William Wallace (1874-1938), Elizabeth Hooker (1876-1954), Helen Root (1879-1958) and Irene duPont (1882-1936). Ira Winans was a member of the First Baptist Church for 61 years, joining it 1870, and was also active in Union veterans groups. Starting in 1906, he began to actively research the Winans family genealogy, creating the collection seen here. He contributed to the creation of the Winans Family Record. Ira Winans passed away on November 2, 1931, and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.