Roper Families in Northern United States
(www.roperld.com)

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:

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

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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