Surname: Roop

Variants are numerous: Roope, Rupp, Rupe, Ruppe, Roupe, Roup, Roper and others.

The name Roper is examined here - click link. The English version of Roper may be Norman, derived from Rupierre in Caen, Normandy or an occupational name, the man who made your ropes.

The Germanic forms (Dutch, if you prefer) may be derived from the personal name Ruprecht, famed/bright one--take your pick of glorious adjectives. Robert is the English version. I also found evidence that Rupp and variants may be a form of German Krupp and variants, where the K or C has been dropped.

The form Roop shows up in the Ancestry.com immigration records 24 times. Nineteen people named Roop had Germanic origins. Only two were English. In the 1920 census (also from Ancestry.com) the form Roop was best represented in the states of PA (12% of Roops), OH (12%), IN (6%) and VA (12%).

My own Roop ancestor, Jonathan, was born in Pennsylvania in 1819 and migrated to Missouri between 1856 and 1863. Playing odds with immigration and settlement patterns, my guess is that Jonathan Roop was of Germanic and not English descent. If I knew his wife's maiden name, it would help me identify an ethnic community, but I don't. All I have is Sarah.

That 1920 number of 12% of Roops in Virginia is not insignificant. While searching for information about Jonathan's past, I've run into a lot of records for Virginia Roops, although I don't believe at this time that there's any connection of my family with the Virginia branch (if a branch it even is).

As long as I'm discussing the Roops, let me put my information out there and see if anyone can help me. All I really have are two census records.

In 1870, Jno Roop is the head of household in Clay, Clark, Missouri.

Jno Roop b.1819, PA
Sarah Roop b.1820, PA
Phebe Roop b1849, PA
Sarah J Roop b1850, PA
Adam Roop b1852, PA
Jno Roop b1854, PA
William Roop b1856, PA
David A Roop b1863, MO
Owen Brown (laborer)

In 1880, Jno Roop is the head of household in Clay, Monroe, Missouri.

Jno Roop, head, b1819, PA
Sarah Roop, wife, b1821, PA
David A. Roop, son, b1865, MO
Jno. Shaw, grandson, b1867, MO
Mary E. Shaw, granddaughter, b1868, MO
Wm. F. Shaw*, son, paralyzed, b1857, PA
Adam Roop, son, b1853, PA
Jno Roop, son, b1854, PA

*Note:I can't explain why the son William takes the name of Shaw in the second census.

I've provided information on this family before in my post, Which Sarah Jane?, and I haven't made any progress since that time. I notice, sadly, that the dates aren't quite right for the Roop men to have participated in the Civil War, nor have I found where any of the younger ones registered for the WWI draft. That rules out a military lead. Neither can I find this Roop family in earlier census records (1850 or 1860) in Pennsylvania. I can find Roops there, specifically on wills, but with no evidence that I'm looking at the correct family. I've tried finding the sons as adults in Missouri; again no luck.

Lacking specific records, I've resorted to general patterns, like surname origin, which isn't yielding much either. :(