History And Origin of surname “ROCKHOLT”
Variant of German Rockolt, a variant of Rocholt, or Rocholl; thought to be from variants of a Germanic personal name composed of the elements hrok ‘prudance’, ‘care’ + wald ‘rule’, and by others to be of Slavic origin.
From all I have been able to determine, our ancestors immigrated to America from England, maybe through the Netherlands. While there is great evidence of German movement into England prior to the 1600’s, there is little recorded history from which information can be gathered. The early family was mostly protestant or puritan, and as such were surely victims of religious persecution, probably the cause of their immigration. Some of the wives of the earliest found American Rockholts were of Welch and Scottish birth, leading me to believe that the early Rockholts did associate with English settlers.
Virginia Colony seems to be the earliest settling, in the 1600’s. From there they moved into Maryland and down into Tennessee. Many of the family men worked on the railroads in the 1800’s, into the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, eventually scattering across the expanding nation, While there is today a large number of Rockholts in Tennessee, they are also concentrated in Texas, Arkansas and California.
Variants of the name, be they the result of intentional or unintentional change, have been found while researching the family genealogy. While today our line spells the family name “ROCKHOLT”, it appears also as Rockhold or Rockhould, and Rockwell. Where only a single use of alternate spelling was found, I retained the more prevalent spelling. Where there were several instances of alternate spellings, I have included both, listing the less prevalent in parenthesis.
I must acknowledge the assistance that I received from family members, both close and distant. They have proven to be a valuable asset, providing both leads and photographs. A special thanks to a schoolmate of mine, Glenda Fox Boyajan, she was such a great help in researching documentation from various sources.
Information contained in this genealogical tree has been collected from census records, birth and death certificates, marriage license filings, military records, bible entries, newspaper articles, obituaries and burial records, and in a few instances from personal history.
There can never be a complete, totally accurate genealogy, there are new events occurring, births, deaths, marriages and divorces which need to be included. There is also the matter of interpretation; choices that I have made, when there exists such extreme differences that it is unclear exactly what the correct information is. The listing of Grandfather Rockholt as Walter William, and not William Walter, was a matter of choice. While I found significant reference for William Walter or William W., and little for Walter William, and the fact that all of the personal reference was “WW Rockholt”, my memory of the time that he spent with my family is that he was “Walter”, and that is what I used for my decision to list him as Walter William. When Grand dad died and his grandson Tommy was handling the final arrangements, he too knew Grand dad as Walter William and that is what is on his death certificate and tombstone. [Note: I have since discovered documentation that allowed me to see where Grand dad, in his own hand, did sign as “William W. Rockholt”, and changed my listing on the family tree.]
My Family Tree: on ancestry.com rockholt (mrockh)
Family Group Page: on Facebook: Rockholt Family Search
My Search Blog: http://michaelrockholt.blogspot.com/
I am always looking for additional members of the family and additions to the information I have listed, and of course, identification of any errors that might exist in the tree that I have developed. Specific reference identification or actual scans of the source documents will be included, when provided. Feel free to contact me:
Michael David Rockholt
