52 Ancestors - TRICK OR TREAT: Those Pesky Ruckers

One of the TREATs of blogging is connecting with distant cousins and potential cousins. This past week I received two emails from Rucker descendants looking for more information. That was just the kick in the pants I needed to get back on my Rucker research.

DAR marker for Angus Rucker
photo courtesy Brian Gallagher
Rucker-Hoffman Cemetery, Madison Co, VA

Some time ago I was TRICKed into thinking my oldest known-for-sure Rucker ancestor was a descendant of Revolutionary War patriot Captain Angus Rucker of Madison County, Virginia. I had been advised by a well-respected Rucker researcher and then-president of the Rucker Family Society to prove that John Frank Rucker was son of Angus. Conventional wisdom was that he was son of Jarvis Rucker, not Angus.

It did not take long to discover that John Frank’s children named some of their own children “Angus.” Surely they were honoring their grandfather Angus Rucker. So it seemed a done-deal that John Frank was son of Angus. Even Daughters of the American Revolution agree; several women have joined this lineage society as direct descendants of Angus Rucker through his son John Frank.

I was lulled into thinking my known great-great-grandfather Frank Rucker was son of John Frank. I mean, after all, look at the name – Frank.

But not so fast.

John Frank Rucker died intestate in 1839. An abstract appears in the Rockingham County Guardian Bonds book: 15 July 1839, Parent, John F. Rucker; Orphans, Onslow, Angeline, and Eliza; Guardian Jared Powell, Bond was $2,000, bondsmen, John Cook and Honorias Powell. 

A daughter Sarah Jane had married James Frazier the year before and thus was out of the house and not in need of a guardian. It made sense to me that Frank likewise was of legal age and not in need of a guardian. I have lived with that thought several years.

Try as I might to ignore the numerous documents that refer to John Frank’s “four orphans,” now I am pretty sure Frank was not son of John Frank. The nail in that coffin was delivered by a chancery cause of 1857 in which Asa Baugher, administrator of the estate of Onslow Rucker, represented his wife Eliza Rucker and her sister Angeline Rucker Roach in a suit against their guardian Jared Powell. While details of the land dispute and proper accounting of how Jared Powell carried out his duties as guardian are interesting to ME, the clincher is this one sentence:

From Chancery Cause Rockingham Co, VA 1857
Adm Onslow Rucker vs Jared Powell

The heirs at law of Onslow Rucker are Mary Rucker, his mother, Jane Frazier wife of James Frazier, Angeline Roach wife of Mickleberry Roach, & Eliza Baugher wife of this complainant.

Frank Rucker was very much alive in 1857, so had he been an heir of Onslow Rucker, he would have been listed in that sentence.

At this point I cannot connect Frank to ANY Rucker male. I have my doubts about whether Frank connects to Jarvis, which is the standard view. Jarvis was from Culpeper County and died in neighboring Madison County. If the death certificate of my great-grandfather Joseph Calhoun Rucker can be believed, his father Frank was born in Amherst County.

Amherst County research will be something new for me. But maybe determining Frank’s parents will turn out to be a TREAT. After all, there were only 10 Rucker families listed in the 1830 census for Amherst County, and only 2 of them had a son born about 1824. Let the search begin again.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Surname Saturday: Rucker

Surname Saturday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers to focus on a particular name, its origin, its geographic location, and how it fits into one’s research.

Anyone who has any interest in Rucker genealogy knows Peter, maybe the first Rucker on Virginia soil, the Godfather of the clan.   His story is part fact and part legend filled with amazing stories of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Virginia by tying himself to a keg of rum. 

What researchers are sure of is that Peter, traveling with some French Huguenots, arrived in Virginia about 1700.  His application for naturalization was approved in 1704 (the law required a 4-year residency for non-British subjects).  Peter married and settled in Essex County.  Later he moved to Spotsylvania County, where John Rucker purchased land. As population grew, new counties were carved out of Spotsylvania.  In 1793, Madison County was formed, and this is where my oldest Ruckers lived.

My most current Rucker family, my maternal grandmother’s side, lived in Rockingham and Page Counties, just across the mountain from Madison.  Searches on Ancestry result in a gazillion Ruckers in Amherst County and Botetourt County, but very few in Rockingham or Page County.  I wonder what made my family go in the opposite direction of the other Ruckers.

1885 map of land ownership in Rockingham County, VA

Frank Rucker's land is at the confluence

of the Shenandoah Riverand Naked Creek.

The fact that my definite ancestors were off by themselves is both a curse and a blessing.  Now keep in mind that it seems the goal of every Rucker descendent is to trace a straight line to Peter.  My straight line is problematic.  For sure working backwards from my grandmother it looks like this:

Lucille Rucker Davis à Joseph Calhoun Rucker à Frank Rucker à John Frank Rucker à ??

Tradition says that picking up at John Frank, the line continues to create this:

John Frank Rucker à Jarvis Rucker à William Rucker à Thomas Rucker à Peter

But more and more, the line looks like this:

John Frank Rucker à Angus Rucker à Ephraim Rucker à Peter

Why? 

Just looking at naming patterns, I see that Eliza Rucker Baugher, daughter of John Frank, named one of her children Angus.  The name Angus was also given to a grandson.  There are no children in my family named Jarvis.  Another “coincidence” is that Frank named a son George Allen.  Angus had a son named George Allen.  Connecting the dots, that means Frank probably named his son after his uncle, his father’s brother.

However, these instances are not proof of anything, and so the battle between old research and new research continues.  It will take more thorough study of wills and deeds to find that direct line back to Peter Rucker.