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Archiver > GERMANNA_COLONIES > 1999-11 > 0941797643


From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (744)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 05:27:23 -0500


The seven hundred and forty-fourth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

It has been a problem to identify the nationality of some names. I asked
recently about the name Bledsoe and the answers which came in made it clear
that the name was English and perhaps quite early to Virginia. I want to ask
about some more names, one in particular in this note.

The family name is Rucker. This is both a geographical name in Germany,
especially as a part of city or village names. It is also a family name.
Sometimes it is spelled with an umlauted "u." In the Virginia patent
records, the first mention of John Rucker is in 1727 when he patented 977
acres of land just to the south of Michael Holt. The only neighbor that John
Rucker mentioned in his patent was Michael and I tend to think that the
neighbors most likely to get mentioned are of the same nationality. Michael
was just to the south of John Broyles and these two are usually considered
as the southern tier of the Robinson River German community but perhaps we
should extend our range to include the Ruckers.

In this same neighborhood there was a John Venton with 1000 acres in 1728.
He mentions as neighbors Michael Raffer (Kaifer), Jacob Priall (Broyles),
Michael Holt, and John Rucker. Three of these four men are known Germans.

In 1730, Thomas Rucker patented 876 acres adjacent to John Rucker and Thomas
Jackson. There was, in 1704, a mention of a Peter Ruckett in the land patents.

Perhaps the previous Peter Ruckett is to be identified with Peter Rucker who
was naturalized in Virginia in 1704. (I am now quoting from the "Underwood
Family" by Ben Coke.) His nationality is said to be unproven but apparently
he was not English if he were naturalized. The next most popular nationality
was German though at this date it might have been French (Huguenot). Peter
died in 1743 and left several heirs, one of which was John who is mentioned
above. John was very active politically. He (John) had a sister, Mary, who
married William Offill which sounds a lot like the German Apfel (i.e.,
apple). A niece of John's, Mary, married William Vawter, a family with
connections to the Germans. John Rucker's sister, Margaret, married Isaac
Smith (English) and this family had many German connections also.

On the whole, the Rucker family is probably German, perhaps French, who
rather quickly became anglicized while maintaining some German connections.
(I am reminded of the Christopher Zimmerman family in the Mount Pony area
who did much the same thing and the reason was probably similar – they were
almost surrounded by the english-speaking citizens.) Apparently, the Rucker
family may have been here a while, longer than the other Germanna citizens.
If anyone can add to the comments that I have made here, I and other readers
on the list would appreciate hearing them.

John Blankenbaker ()
P.O. Box 120, Chadds Ford, PA 19317-0120
http://www.germanna.com
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhis1.html
for information on a CD of the Germanna History

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