The Shaw Surname

The Recent Shaws 

Homer Ripley Shaw, son of Charles Milton Shaw and Melissa Rachel Mabie, married Vena M. Warner in Elmira, Chemung County, New York on 1 March 1905. They had several children including Blanche Edna Shaw, Nellie Ellen Shaw, Nelson Warner Shaw, Verne Wayne Shaw, and my great grandmother Helen Elizabeth Shaw. 

 

Helen Elizabeth (Shaw) Meese's locket with photos of her parents Vena and Homer

The Shaw Surname 

There are several possible origins for the surname Shaw 

1. Middle English s(c)hawe s(c)haghe meaning small wood grove thicket. A possible topographical name for someone who lived in a small forest. Shaw and Shawe are frequent in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
2. shortened form of Scottish Gaelic personal name Sitheach derived from sithech meaning wolf 
3. Irish O Sithigh meaning a descendant of Sitheach, a personal name that translates to peaceful 

I traced the Shaw family through Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. The Shaw line goes back to England in the early 1600s. 

With love, 

Autumn Rose Surratt 

The Ancestor Witch  

Sources 

• Shaw surname search on Ancestry app 
• New York Marriage Index, 1881-1967 on Ancestry