CENTRE LINES

The ROCKEY Family

This column is part of a feature series which focuses on a different Centre County family each week. Five new columns will be released each month unless some technical difficulty enters the picture.

This column's focus is on ROCKEY. An effort has been made to identify all persons carrying that name in the 1890 U.S. Census, using the Centre County business directory which was formed from a preliminary review of that census before the larger set of 1890 U.S. Census records was destroyed by fire. (Sadly, the postal directory does not typically provide the ages of females, but it's the best record we've got).

One book in the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library in Bellefonte apparently deals with the Lee family. It is: Dora Wichman's The Barnet Rockey Family (Topeka, Kansas, 1975).

There are 10 different first-name entries for Rockey in John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton County (1883). In addition, there are many references to the name in Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania (1898).

And, now, your ancestors' ROCKEY neighbors in 1890:

In HARRIS Township:

William A., 27, farmer--Boalsburg Lydia H. Leah

In MARION Township:

John K., 39, farmer--Nittany Eliza Rosa John B. 6 Harry 18 Harry M. 14

In PATTON Township:

Elizabeth--Buffalo Run Henrietta--Fillmore John B., 43 Annie M. Willis F. 8 William F. 6 Daniel S. 4 Andrew C. 2 John C., 21, laborer--Buffalo Run

In POTTER Township:

William F., 36, huckster--Tusseyville Jennie

In SPRING Township:

Jane R.--Zion William, 67, laborer--Bellefonte

In WALKER Township:

George H., 37, farmer--Zion Annie Charles E. 9 Mary H. John P., 30, farmer--Zion Abbie Franklin L. 11 Helen P. Harry N. 6 Annie E. Amelia Edgar 17 Mary--Zion Sophia