ROPP Family plot; Millbury Central Cemetery, Millbury MA

It's been 2 years since my last post about the ROPP family history, but research continues...  The following pictures were sent to me by a volunteer in 2013 and I'm just getting to post them now.  For those ROPP relatives from away, I hope you find these images a helpful addition to your research:

ROPP Family plot

François and Frederique

Ernest J. and Francis D.

More info on Alice ROPP's marriage

In an earlier post, I talked about Alice ROPP and her marriage. I got a record from the town office that indicated they were married in 1899.  Here's another record that shows the year as 1898. I thought this could have been a mis-written, but there is a stamp that is difficult to read on this copy that says "RECEIVED Feb 28, 1899"

Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915 > 4332401 > Image 373 of 566
familysearch.org

Then I came across this record on ancestry.com which also says 1898

And this one, also from ancestry.com:

With so many recordings of the same event, it's no wonder we run into issues with conflicting data...

Marie M. ROPP Gets Married

Some people aren't a fan of ancestry.com, but I am.  There. I've said it.  Sure, it has its problems, but there are also some nice upsides as well.  Here's a document I found this morning...  no shaky green leaf required...

If the typed up "published record isn't good enough and you want to see the actual Town Clerk's entry..  thank ancestry again - And I'm glad both are available.  Why does the typed copy have John's birthplac as England when the written copy clearly says Ireland?  Mental note: you MUST ALWAYS look for primary sources even if you have transcriptions.

This picture of Marie was shared with me by a cousin a few years ago. It was taken in August 1943

Marie Martine (ROPP) CASEY
August 1943

Ernest ROPP's Death Notice Creates More Questions Than Answers...

Well it's been longer than a little while since I have made a post on this blog, but today was an interesting day.  First I was looking through my ROPP family notes for the first time in months. In the middle of that I actually heard from my Grandfather's sister, who I hadn't heard from in well... many, many months.  After I replied to her I had to jump on a Genealogy Webinar on a web site that I use fairly frequently, GenealogyBank.com. The speaker, Tom Kemp, mentioned having Baltimore, MD newspapers on their web site and I immediately thought. "Holy $*^& "  (yes, I think in grawlixes!) "Why didn't I think of that before"  and I jumped into a search for a marriage announcement for Ernest ROPP.

No Luck!

I didn't come up empty handed though. Take a look at what I did find....  A death Notice for Ernest ROPP from the November 13, 1960 Boston Herald:

Death Notice:
Boston Herald, November 13, 1960 Page 68

What I find interesting about this notice is that it lists his age at time of death at 51. This would mean he was born about the year 1909.  I have my Ernest's birth year as 1877 according to Ship Passenger lists, census records, etc.  But this Ernest has children, Francis D and Helen, which also correspond to the children of my Ernest.  Interesting.

I recall when looking through census information for Ernest ROPPthat I once ran into a situation where there were 2 Ernest ROPPs in the same town, probably Worcester.  Could I have a gap in my research?  Did Ernest ROPP(1877-??) have a child also named Ernest, born in 1909, who is the real father of Helen and Francis D?  That doesn't make sense either, since Helen was born (according to a birth record I was given by her daughter) in 1906.

Wait.. 1906?  I have her mother, Mattie Carolina KELLEYlisted as being born in 1895.  That would make her 10 or 11 when Helen was born.  Hrm....  Methinks me has some re-work to do here.

Any other ROPP descendants have some info they could use to shed some light on this topic. I'm clearly confused :)

Francis Douglas Ropp

Recently received the following tidbit of information about Francis D. Ropp from "Cousin Jim":

"Found something interesting...  a 1961 copy of birth cert of Francis D. Ropp (b. 2/2/1918) (this is Francis Douglas Ropp, my grandfather).  It lists Ernest J. Ropp as the father (a mechanic born in France) and the mother as Mary J. Currie (born in Nova Scotia).  Guess the "Holleran" name I had was an error."

Good information.  Now we have some more searching to do with this new information.

Thanks for sharing, Jim!

Alice ROPP



Alice ROPP KNIGHT circa 1926

Well, its about time I got something new to share with the family...

Not much has been written here about Alice ROPP.  Alice was the daughter of François and Frederique ROPP, but she did not come to America with the rest of the family in 1893.  I have a photo that was shared by a distant cousin who is also researching this family.

Last summer I received information that Alice was married to Frank KNIGHT on September 5, 1898 as published in the Town Clerks report for Boylston in 1899.  Today I received a copy of the actual marriage certificate which shows Alice's relationship to François and Frederique, and also shows a corrected date of September 5, 1899.

In addition, it proves that Alice was in the United States by 1899.  Did she come before the rest of her family?  Did she come later?  This is still unclear to me.


And, of course, now I know some more information about Alice's husband, Frank as well.  This is not my immediate family, but its interesting to me that I have this information and thought it worth sharing with anyone else who may be researching this family.  My direct line to François and Frederique is through Alice's brother, Ernest, but it is nice to know something about the whole family when trying to piece the story together of this "mystery family" (at least they are to me.) and their relocation from Europe to America.

Thank you to the Boylston Town Clerk who turned around my request for this document in record time.  I'm very appreciative.

Snow?  Seriously?

I thought I had a few more weeks that I could use to schedule a trip down to MA and get some more gravestone photos.  Sounds like I may need to schedule a spring trip now.

Happy Halloween, Everyone! (Can I assume we'll have Tulips by New Year's?)