The ROWBERRY One-Name Study

Out on a branch

A new service to family historians who have roots in Herefordshire, especially those who wish to visit their ancestral home! Come and make use of the fruits of my thirty years research into the ROWBERRY family! Click here for further details.

Although this is called the ROWBERRY One-Name Study it also includes many variants, such as my own maiden name RUBERY. In fact these are the two most common variants found today, closely followed by ROWBURY and RUBERRY. Others still extant include REWBURY, ROBERY, ROEBURY, ROVERY, ROWBERY, ROWBORY, ROWBREE, ROWBREY, ROWBURREY, RUBBERY, RUBBRA, RUBRA, RUBREY and RUBURY.

In the past many other variants have been noted, but as far as I am aware they are not still in use. In most cases it is impossible to say that present day variants are only linked to others using the same spelling as, due to inconsistencies in recording, changes were still occurring up to the beginning of the twentieth century. So if you are possessed of, or have a concern in, any of the above surnames I hope that you will find something of interest within these pages.

For a musical backgound while you read please click here. This is an arrangement of Elgar's Enigma Variations - a particularly appropriate piece. It is included by permission of Robert S Fidley © 1998. Click here for further details.

My name is Polly RUBERY, although the name on my birth certificate reads Patricia Mary RUBERY. For twenty-five years I was known as Polly LAWRENCE, but in 2000 I reverted to my maiden name. I came by the name LAWRENCE in the normal way, when I married Francis Colin LAWRENCE in 1975; but Polly is a nickname that has become established through long usage! When our first son, John Francis Frederick LAWRENCE was born in 1976 my cousin Sheila in Toronto sent me a "Baby Album". One of the pages was a beautifully drawn Family Tree with spaces for the baby's ancestors back to his great-grandparents. As both Francis and I were born to parents who were aged over 40, neither of us had known all our grandparents. Therefore I started asking questions to fill in the gaps - and somehow I've never stopped since!

The ROWBERRY One-Name Study was registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 1980, only one year after the founding of the Guild in 1979. My membership number is 278. The Guild has its own Website, visit it to see if any of your other surname interests are the subject of an ONS. You will also find a definition of what a One-Name Study is. But don't forget to come back!

Since 1996 I have been helped by Nicky ROWBERRY and since 1997 by Linda AMES, who is a descendant of Bishop John ROWBERRY who emigrated to America from Herefordshire in the early 1840's. I would like to acknowledge the great debt that I owe, not only to the efforts of Nicky and Linda, but also to many others who have helped in the course of my research.

However all mistakes are mine! If you wish to contact me please send an email by clicking on the following link, or the one which you should find on most pages of this site: Polly Rubery

There is now a ROWBERRY Group DNA Project! For details of the project and how to join visit the ROWBERRY DNA Project page on the FamilyTreeDNA website. We hope to learn how all the various ROWBERRY, RUBERY and other R Family Trees link together, not to mention the GOMERY ones too! But it cannot be done without your help! Please consider joining or donating to the project which can also be done via the FTDNA website. If you have any questions please email me using the following link: RONS DNA Project

There is a free email list for the ROWBERRY ONS which you are warmly invited to join. The List carries announcements of updates and additions to this website, so you can keep abreast of the news by subscribing. To subscribe just send the one word subscribe to the following address: ROWBERRY-request@rootsweb.com

The extractions that I have made from the GRO indexes to births, marriages and deaths for most variants of ROWBERRY and GOMERY have now been added to the FreeBMD database. This covers the registration of events that took place in England and Wales during the period 1837-1983. For the ROWBERRY marriages where I know the name of the spouse you will find that too, identified by my name as the submitter. Note that the index is now well over two thirds complete for most other surnames, up to 1910, and now beyond. Search for those missing events here!

Now read on
Enter and explore the world of the ROWBERRY family by choosing one of the following links. To continue, each page gives you the choice of returning here, or moving on to the next item in a particular theme.

But please read this NOTE first!
This addresses privacy concerns and possible downloading problems associated with the trees on this web-site.

Family Trees
At present only a small part of the many Family Trees that have so far been built up are on the web-site. Now that the website has its own domain it is hoped to remedy this as quickly as possible, so if you cannot find yourself now, please check regularly to see if your branch has been added. Alternatively, please contact Polly Rubery for further details.

This was the first of the completed trees to be placed on the website. Besides the ROWBURY Family of the USA it also contains the ROWBURREY Family of Aberdare and several present day ROWBERRY Families, including the one in Scotland. The tree has been updated to include the information that I gathered during my visit to the USA. The latest addition is a completely new branch, the RUBERY Family of India!

This is the complete tree for the RUBERRY Family of Cornwall, which includes the RUBERRY Family of Idaho, and also a RUBERRY family in both Canada and Australia.

The RUBERRY Family of Chicago, USA, which has Irish origins.

Name Variants
As many of the different variants of the surname appear on different trees I am also working on a set of pages linking each different variant with the trees that it appears on today. (Most variants can be found on most trees in the past!). Again it is hoped to build up this suite of pages as quickly as possible, so if you cannot find your own particular variant now, please check regularly to see if your branch has been added. Alternatively, please contact Polly Rubery for further details.

The first of these pages concerns the variant RUBERRY. As I found out quite a lot about this name whilst I was in America this makes use of some of the information and pictures that I was able to obtain. You will also find quite a bit about the Ellis Island connection too.

Maps
In any voyage of exploration it is necessary to have a good map to guide you. Malcolm Farmer has placed a wonderful map of Herefordshire dated 1880 on his web site and he has granted me permission to link to it. Thus when you see place names which are hot-links clicking on them will take you to a portion of this map, centered on that place. If you wish you can move further afield by clicking on squares at the edges of the map. This will enable you to relate the history of the families to the places where they lived. To return to my web page please remember that you will need to use your browser's Back button.

This tells the story of my research into my own family with my own family tree. Here you will find out why I should really be doing a GOMERY One-Name Study as well, and why my closest living relative in Herefordshire today is called GUMMERY!

The origin of the name in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Confirmation of my theory is now included.

Distribution of the name in the 1881 census index.

A brief history of the USA ROWBERRY Family, together with their family tree.

A brief tour of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the Footsteps of Wilford Woodruff.

Some of the RUBERYs of the USA.

A ROWBERRY Family Gathering was held on 7^th-9^th April 2000. This page gives a report of the weekend, which around 200 people attended.

The Family Gathering in April 2000 was reported in several local newspapers, the Daily Telegraph and on ABCNews (American TV). Click here to read all about it!

For those of you awaiting details of the Family Gatherings held in Salt Lake City in May 2001 and in England in 2002 and 2005, I can only apologise! I hope to have them online very soon. In the meanwhile details of the programmes are still available at:

and

An interesting 19^th century Loving Cup, with an inscription reading "A Present from George Harris of Hanley to Albert ROWBERY of Hereford".

Some links which I have found useful or interesting.

URL= http://www.rowberry.org/index.html
Last revised: 8^th May 2008
© Polly Rubery 1998-2008