Re: George W Rotan, Sr - Waco, TX mid 1800's
-
In reply to:
Re: George W Rotan, Sr - Waco, TX mid 1800's
Colleen Rowe 1/18/02
If you have not visited the site of the Roden Chronologue you will find it interesting...
http://members.tripod.com/~hawkmoon3/rodens.htmlhttp://members.tripod.com/~hawkmoon3/rodens.html
...if for no other reason than to see the enormous variety of spellings for this phonetic family. This particular list of names represent at least three unrelated families from England [Rawdon, Roughton and Wroughton] and probably more, that spread out mostly through the South from early immigrants to Virginia.
The only Rotan gossip in my own family was that they were part Native American. But almost all families making their two century trip across the deep south seem to have this tale of 'Indian blood'. It is quite possible that my John A's wife was of native descent. As all such records the family had were destroyed or lost many years ago, it will be difficult to prove that connection.
Because of reasonably sound clues (the occasional presence of a W before the R and the fact that the trail back seems to point to Dorchester, MD) I am fairly certain that my Rotans are from the Wroughtons of Dorchester, MD who are descended from the Wroughtons of Wiltshire,England.
There is good evidence as well, that many others in this phonetic family, particularly those spelled Roten, are from Swiss, French, German or Belgian origins.
Because 'rotan' is the Dutch word for rattan, when rotan is typed in a search engine many Dutch sites show up. This has led some to believe that it has Dutch origins.
Keep digging around NC. There are still a lot of Rotans there, some who are descended from immigrants from SC and quite possibly related to my group. Good luck. We would all love to know if you find anything of interest!
Raydon
More Replies:
-
Re: George W Rotan, Sr - Waco, TX mid 1800's
Colleen Rowe 1/19/02