How Goes It?

Europe, through the thirteen and fourteen hundreds, was conflict upon conflict.  The English kings were constantly trying to uphold their positions and standing.  The French, the Scots, the Irish, the Welch, and others were all warring against the English Kings at some time or another.  The Kings were fighting with the nobles, the nobles with the peasants, the clergy with the faithful and the unfaithful.  It was not a very calm, friendly environment.

The fifteen hundreds brought a different kind of war, one pitting the church against the crown, and the followers of the various emerging protestant churchs against the crown and "church".  The thirty years of the civil war created some strong rifts between those who supported the "church" and those who felt that there was a god given right to life, liberty, and happiness, and to worship in the manner that they felt was right for them.

Robert Rockhould (name as on earliest found documentation) was born probably between 1600 and 1605.  He was likely born in England but could have been born in the Netherlands.  While no documentation, there is sketchy information that his father was one Richard Rockwell who died about 1621 in Fitzhead, Somerset, England.  Richard was the son of William Rockwell and Marion Wyke (or Pyke or Kyne); he married Thomazine Littlejohn in Fitzhead, September 1593.  This Thomazine could be the Thomasin that arrived in Virginia in 1637 under the sponsorship of Robert.

Considering the interchanging of the Rockhould, Rockhold, Rockholt, Rockwell names over the years, it is not a long stretch.  History tells us many Puritans were not willing to convert to the religious ilks of the English royals and some left England for the Netherlands in the early 1600s, before any real colonization of America.  This leads me to believe that Robert and maybe Samuel Greniffe did relocate to the Netherlands and then at a later date on to Virginia.

Robert married Sarah Greniffe about 1633, probably in the Netherlands where sons Robert Junior and Thomas, and daughter Mary were born.  The family immigrated first to Virginia colony around 1637, as reflected in land records of the time.  Daughter Ann and son John were born in Virginia.  The family relocated to Maryland colony around 1649.

Richard was an armourer (gunsmith) by trade but the family became very successful farmers with several hundred acres, mostly in tobacco.  All of the first generation, Robert Jr., his siblings and their wives died in Maryland.  Their descendants moved eventually to the corners of the new world, as it grew.  Today there are relatives found with three variations of the family name; Rockhold, and Rockholt as well as Rockwell.  The family Rockwell does not always trace back to Robert, there is a seperate line of the Rockwell family originating in Massachusetts around the same time Robert came to Virginia.

I favor the idea our Robert, who could be the son of Richard Rockwell of Fitzhead, was a brother or cousin of William Rockwell, father of the New England Rockwell family.  If, and it's a very big if, Robert left England under penalty of arrest (which could have occurred over even a trivial matter) he would have changed his name since the arrest warrant would have followed him to the colony.  I support this idea with the documentation of the use of Rockwell by a few of the second generation individuals.  Also, I have found some information regarding the history of the name itself:  "Rockwell, formally Rockholt; from old English,

hroc (rook) + holt (wood), of Buckinghamshire and Somerset".

I thought I had a good lead on another Rockhould family in England, around the time Robert would have left, but it turned out to be a Rockwell that was indexed as Rockhould.  I have also found some Rockholts in Sweden, I have yet to gain any contact with them but I am trying.  I have not found anything that would tie the family to Germany.

There is not a lot of documentation existing that allows us to trace the family forward from Robert's arrival in Virginia.  Some land records and a few probates of wills along with a very few surviving family bibles are about all we have that can be considered reliable.  The early histories of Virginia and Maryland contain some information on the early families, the Rockhould/hold/holts, the Todds, the Warfords, the Dorseys, the Richardsons and others are often presented in totally different lights in the various histories.  It seems that there just might have been a little bias towards some and against the others. 

Until 1850, when the United States census began to list all members of the household by name, it is a very difficult task to piece together the lineage from one generation to the next.  Even after 1850 it can be imposable.  The 1890 census was destroyed leaving twenty years, from the 1880 census to the 1900 census, with very little information to work with.  Also, early records were often made with names spelled wrong, children visiting with family members were sometimes recorded as son or daughter of the head of household when in fact they were a niece or nephew.  Orphans and step children were often misidentified. 

The children of Alfred Rockhold/holt and Elizabeth Sisk, who accompanied Elizabeth to California, are good examples.  They are identified with the surname of their stepfather on one census.  As both Rockhold and Rockholt  they emerged into adulthood.  Alfred's second wife, Elizabeth Presley, was only identified as Elizabeth on the census records and was thought to be the same person as Elizabeth Sisk until the marriage document for her and Alfred was found.

Another great question is whether or not Elizabeth Presley was Presley by birth or by marriage.  Some of the Presley family attest the name to marriage to one John Presley, but no marriage documents have been proven, and there just doesn't seem to be any good evidence to support the idea.  While there is good evidence of a single Elizabeth, in the area, of the right age to marry Alfred, there is just no good evidence that the two young Presley boys living with Alfred and Elizabeth were not hers by a previous marriage.  While they could well be her nephews, there is nothing to prove that they are.

Duplicate names, especially the more common given names of the family, such as William, Alfred, and Robert often create questionability.  In one case I have identified three individuals with the same name, near the same age in Tennessee in 1860.  As the family increased in numbers, as the years went by, it becomes even a greater problem.  Until the early 1900's death certificates did not exist, and births were only recorded in church records and family bibles.  In the few instances where state/colony records were kept they were mostly kept only long enough to prepare an "indexed record".  These records are often filled with errors in transcription from the originals. 

The Mormon Church has done extensive work in transcribing and indexing historical records.  The federal and many state census records, old military records and extensive collections of family tree are made available on the web site "ancestry.com".  For anyone looking into the family lineage the cost of subscription to "ancestry" is money well spent.