Re: "R" men - thinning hair? Large Build?
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In reply to:
Re: "R" men - thinning hair? Large Build?
4/07/01
Ed,
I think I read somewhere that the Pennsylvania Ratchfords moved to the States in the first half of the 19th century. There was a bunch that moved to the Carolinas in the early 18th century or even 17th century (I think). That book "Ratchfords I Recon" is supposed to be excellent and may have your Ratchfords in it.
I've dug up some ancient history about the Ratchford name. A man named Thomas Ratchford, with a wonderful Irish broge, called me the other night. He said the name Ratchford is pronounced Rochefort "in the native tong". It's obviosly not a Gallic word, but a Norman place name; Rochefort is a town on the Normady coast and the word means "strong rock", or "strong as a rock" in French.
I'm very much an novice at this, but it appears the name originated in Roman and mideavel times as "de Rupe", Latin for "of the rock" or "like a rock". It seems to have evolved into de Rupefort, then de Rochefort, and de Roche. Some of these people may have mixed with Vikings when they occupied the Norman coast and would't leave when they were asked nicely. They were fierce warriors and may have ingratiated themselves with the French monarcy by fighting thier battles for them, and became the Norman Knights. I found a Guy II, "The Red", Count de Rochefort, whose sister (maiden name was Countess de Rochefort), or some relative, was married to Louis VI, and was mother to Louis VII, amoung other royal siblings.
As you know, the Normans invaded England in 1066. There could have been Norman knights, or soldiers of some kind, named de Rochefort, who may have left the port of Rochefort, and wound up in England.
Then about 1170, Strongbow and his gang of Anglo-Normans, invaded Ireland. The name Rochefort and Roche may have been introduced to "the native tong" back then.
There seems to be Ratchfords in all the British Isles. I found 254 of them listed in the wonderful "Church of the Later Day Saints" web site in Salt Lake. All but 30 were from England and went back to 1590. They were Protestants and Catholics.
Unfortunately it appears that most of the Irish Ratchford records were destroyed in the "Post Office" fire during the Rebellion in Dublin, in 1921. There were records of a few Irish Ratchfords from Mayo around 1830's.
From what I understand, de Rochefort, Rochefort, Rochfort, and the Anglicised Rochford, Rachford, Rachfoorth, and Ratchford are all the same name pronounced in English or Gallic (that's the only language Rochefort and Roche exist in today with a few exceptions in French), and the different spelling of the Anglicised versions are due to illiteracy and writing the name like it sounded.
This is all speculation on my part and I have very little evidence to prove this stuff. I've just been surfing the net.
Anne Boleyn's (Henry VIII's second wife) brother, George Boleyn, was named Lord Rochford, of the town in Essex, U.K. by that name. (An English third cousin I have in the U.K. researched that). There must have been a Rochefort (either a perosn or a place) that that town in England was named after.
As you know Henry and his court wanted to get rid of Anne and her bunch, so they chopped of thier heads off on trumped up charges.
I found a James Ratchford that was married in Westminster, London, in 1630.
My Ratchfords were English Catholics from Liverpool who were originally from Ireland. They probably left during the potato famine in the late 1840's because the family home in Liverpool goes back to 1850. If the Irish wanted to catch a ship to emmegrate, they had to go to an English port city. My relatives probably just stayed in England like a lot of them did. One of them came to the U.S. around 1900. Some may have gone to Canada.
My guess is that your Ratchfords came to the U.S. in the early part of the 19th century and may have gone all the way to Kansas and California. I saw a Ratchford on the voting records in San Francisco around 1850. I don't know if they were English or Irish, Catholic or Protestant. Ratchfords were of every persuation and nationality, including Scotch. I have been corresponding with several African American Ratchfords who are probably related by blood as well as name.
Ratchfords probably fought on both sides of the English Civil War around 1640,(maybe why some Ratchfords went to the Colonies). They also probably fought on both sides of the American Revolution, Patriots (probably from the South and a few officers from Philadelphia), American Torries (poor Irish Catholics), and British troops named Ratchford from England and Northern Ireland. They fought on both sides of the American Civil War as well. There's a famous James Ratchford who was a Major and fought for the South with distinction, and I wouldn't be surprisec if some of the Pennsylvania Ratchfords didn't fight for the Union.
Oh well, I'm probably boring you. I have recently found this stuff to be very interesting. Maybe it's because I'm sixty-one and these things don't seem to be that long ago at my age.
Jim Ratchford (James Joseph Ratchford III)