I have worked for over thirty-five years on the Roper/Rooper family history in the United States and England.

Most of the northern United States Ropers descend from John Roper, who came from England to Massachusetts c1637, and are well connected back to Norfolk, England. (I have many data for this family.) I have shown through Y-chromosome tests that this family and the majority of southern Ropers are related.

Much of the early data about these Northern Ropers come from the following documents:

• The Ropers of Sterling and Rutland, Ella E. Roper, East Orange NJ 1904, Higginson Book Co.
• The Ropers, A Biographical Record from Circa 1300 to 1982, Kenneth L. Roper, 1982.
• A Roper Genealogy 1588-1988, Frank Adams Roper, Jr., 1988.

There are at least three well-known branches of this Northern Roper family:

• The Roper Starch Worldwide Company, originally Roper Opinion Research Company. This company was started by Elmo Burns Roper, Jr. (b 31 July 1900 Hebron, Thayer, NE d 30 April 1971 West Redding, Fairfield, CT). His ancestry is well known back through the John Roper who came to Massachusetts c1637 (see above). A document about the life of his grandfather Frederick Ephraim Roper is available.
• The Roper Manufacturing Company of Zanesville OH. This company makes kitchen appliances and yard-maintenance machinery. This company was founded by George Denny Roper (b 8 Feb 1855 Springfield, Sangamon, IL d 17 Nov 1925 Rockford, Winnebago, IL), a member of the Massachusetts Roper family. Search for George D. Roper on dogpile search engine
• Lanning Roper (b 1912 NJ d 1983 London England) was a well known garden designer in England. He immigrated there from the United States. He authored seven books and many magazine articles about designing gardens. A book about his work is: Lanning Roper and his Gardens by Jane Brown, 1987. His ashes were scattered over the gardens at Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst, Kent England. He received an honors degree in Fine Arts form Harvard University in 1933. He served in the U.S. Navy in WWII, and was in charge of Div 67 on D-Day. He was commissioned as Prince Charles' landscape gardener in 1981 to do the grounds at Highgrove House in the Cotswolds. His ancestry is well known back through the John Roper who came to Massachusetts c1637 (see above). He married but had no children. More information about him.

Syvester Hayward Roper was an inventer in Massachusetts. He probably is a member of the Northern Roper family. If anyone knows about his ancestry, please tell me about it.

Another Roper family that first came to Pennsylvania and then on to Virginia are the descendants of John Roper (b 1770 Cumbria Co. England d 1830 England) who moved to Pennsylvania and then to Virginia. Members of this family founded the Roper Lumber Co. in VA and NC and the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. Roper NC is named for the Roper Lumber Co.

Another Roper family immigrated from Lincoln County England to Utah as Mormans. This family originated from Noah Roper (b 1720 d 1796 both in Lincoln Co. England). The wife of his grandson John William Roper, Susannah Behunin Smith Roper, made the difficult trip to Utah in 1848 with her four children. Her descendants have been prominent in the LDS Church.

My Roper ancestry goes back to my sixth great-grandfather John Roper, Jr. (b c1660 d bef1759 VA) in New Kent and Charles City Counties, Virginia in the late 1600s. My fourth great-grandfather, David (b bef1727 VA d 1795 NC), moved to Orange/Caswell County, North Carolina c1760 and on to Burke County, North Carolina c1790. Perhaps this John Roper, Jr. or an ancestor of his came from the Northern Roper family, but more likely from a Roper family that came directly to Virginia from England or Wales.

I am providing my computer as the repository of Roper family data. I wish to collect all Roper family data that I can. Please contact me and tell me all you know (names, dates and places of births, marriages and deaths) about your Roper ancestry. (I like to have details about parents of spouses, also; that often helps to make family connections.

L. David Roper genealogy web page.
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