NOTE:The following text comes from Family Research Notes by Alfred L. Roach. He said he wrote these pages primarily for his own family to read. However he gave permission to copy them.

Alfred L. Roach
10159 E. 22nd Place
Tulsa, OK 74129

Chapter 1: Virginia

Though there were other Roach family lines before 1700 in Maryland and others after 1700 on t he coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina, all information that I have researched indicates that our line is descended from a Littleberry Roach who came into Virginia about 1700.

The journal of a descendent of his is one source of details that is often referred to by some family researchers. The great-great grandson says Littleberry was a Baptist minister and a wheelwright who, although he was born in Ireland, had come to Virginia from Genoa, Italy about 1 700. He gives the names of Littleberry's children as Henry, John, Littleberry, Thomas, Lewis, Rhoda, and Nancy. Other descendants who have researched this family say family stories imply the first Littleberry was a mariner since they were teased as children by older family members about their ancestor being a pirate.

As a result of my having gathered and analyzed all information from Virginia tax lists for 17 82, 1783, 1787, 1800, and 1810: from Mormon L.D.S. records; from Virginia census records 179 0 through 1840; from Virginia marriage records for 1750 through 1840; and from writings and letters by other researchers, the following pages are an account of the descendancy of our Roach line from Littleberry Roach who came into Virginia about 1700.

The location of the first Littleberry is not known, but sons Henry and John are first picked up in New Kent County near the Atlantic Coast. St. Peter's Parish records of New Kent Count y lists Henry and Catherine (Ashcraft) Roach as the parents of Ashcraft, born October 29, 173 6, and Sabra, born August 8, 1738. In the same record are listed John and Sarah as parents o f Henry, born July 29, 1753; Oray (daughter) born February 26, 1755; Littleberry, born February 9, 1757; and Milly, born November 23, 1758.

Other researchers show this Henry and John of New Kent County as brothers and also sons of the first Littleberry. Mrs. John Messing of Custer, Wisconsin, a descendent of John and Sarah through their son Henry, reports that Henry and Littleberry, sons of John and Sarah, migrate d westward into Kentucky where they raised their families, remaining there until their deaths.

Mrs. Messing further states that this John and Sarah moved out of Virginia north into New York. I have been unable to find any further information on them after they left Virginia about 1760.

Another interesting note is that Catherine who married Henry, son of Littleberry, was believe d to be the daughter of Thomas Ashcraft of New Kent County, Virginia. The fact that Henry and Catherine named their first child, a boy, Ashcraft Roach seems to support Catherine's relation to Thomas Ashcraft. I have learned in researching land records for New Kent County that in 1704 Thomas Ashcraft bought one hundred eighty acres of land from her majesty the Queen for one shilling per each fifty acres of land bought. What a buy! (About fifty cents)

The church records and the land records for New Kent County from 1704 to 1758 place Henry an d John Roach and likely Thomas Ashcraft there between 1700 and 1760.

Henry and Catherine married then about 1735; and although only two children were named in the parish records for them, very likely there were other children born before they migrated in to the Shenandoah River Valley of interior Virginia. A descendent of their son Ashcraft, Mrs. Eleanor J. Covey, writes that he migrated westward along the James River into Amherst and Albemarle Counties, arriving there before 1758. Since he would have been only twenty-two and s till unmarried at the time, I think it very likely his parents, Henry and Catherine, with the other children James born about 1740, John about 1745, William about 1747, Mary about 175 0, Littleberry about 1753, and Lewis about 1755, migrated along the James River into Amherst County with Ashcraft.

As the migration westward places Henry and Catherine in Albemarle and Amherst counties, finding other sons of the first Littleberry and brothers of Henry was not unexpected as I searched records for this area of Virginia.

In Greenbriar County I found on the tax and census records Littleberry's son Littleberry and Henry's brother. In Greenbrier, Monroe, and Augusta, adjoining counties, I found him and the families of his children. I had known from Joan Messing that he had married Margaret See about 1758 there; and the census and marriage records gave me the names and families of his children. They were Absalom, Ann, Richard, Reuben, Jeremiah, David, Jonathan, Samuel, and Robert. The Absalom, our ancestor in Grainger County, Tennessee, had for a long while seemed relate d to the Absalom who had fought in the Revolutionary War from Greenbriar County, Virginia; but I had been unable to find the relationship until now. Absalom in Virginia was the son of Littleberry the brother to Henry the father to James, the father to our Absalom in Tennessee. Our ancestor James in North Carolina, son of Henry, was then a cousin to the Absalom in Virginia; and James had named his first son Absalom for his cousin Absalom. There were about ten years difference in the ages of the two Absaloms. Descended from our Tennessee Absalom are several Absaloms including an uncle of Dad's and a cousin of Dad's. Other names likely brought from Virginia to North and South Carolina in the families of James' brothers John and Littleberry are Reuben, Jeremiah, David, Thomas and Jonathan. The repetition of these family names suggests that the families who migrated south had lived near the Virginia families before the move about 1770-1775.

Another son of the first Littleberry and brother to our ancestor Henry found in central Virginia was Thomas. Thomas had married Ann Cooke December 28, 1755 in Stafford County. They had h ad ten children who had married in Stafford, Fairfax, and Loudon, adjoining counties' near Littleberry in Greenbriar and Monroe Counties. Thomas' children were James, Mary, Sarah, Richard, Robert, Simon, Benjamin, John, George, and William.

This then places Henry, John, Thomas and Littleberry, sons to the first Littleberry, in central Virginia from about 1750 into the 1800's except for Henry and Catherine who had migrated into North Carolina about 1770-1775.

Although I was unable to find the brother Lewis, I did find a James in Orange County, Virginia who likely was related to this line since I had found no other Roach lines in central Virginia at this time. Orange County was near to the other families--near enough that children of Littleberry and Thomas had settled there in later years in the 1800's.

Is this James a brother that the diary of a great-great grandson of Littleberry's (the source of the names of his children) did not name in the family? Or was Lewis's name James Lewis? Whatever the answer, it is most likely this James is related and his age could have easily placed him in the family with Henry, John, Thomas, and Lewis.

Henry and Catherine's son Ashcraft married Mary Magdalene Sea in Amherst County, Virginia in 1758. With Mary Magdalene he had nine children and lived in Amherst, Albemarle, and August a Counties until his death in Amherst County in 1815 at the age of seventy-nine years. (Sources: Virginia State Tax Lists for 1782, 1783, 1787, 1800, and 1810; L.D.S, records; and Mrs. Eleanor J. Covey, San Carlos, CA.). In 1789 Ashcraft married Elizabeth Fowler. They may have had children also but I have not been able to document any for them.

From East Tennessee Number One, a quarterly magazine published by Thomas Ed Roach of Rutledge, Grainger County, Tennessee, I have this information. Littleberry, James, Lewis, and William, all believed to be brothers, lived in Orange County, North Carolina from 1778 through the 1 780's. Another interesting bit of information is that living near them in Orange County were Thomas and John Ashcraft. In his will in Orange County in 1791, James Roach had made provision for his mother who lived in his home at the time. His mother was not referred to by name, just as "my mother". The close proximity of Thomas and John Ashcraft and the residing of James' mother in his home suggest to me a strong probability that Henry and Catherine (Ashcraft) Roach had migrated along with her brothers Thomas and John Ashcraft southward from Virginia into Orange County in the northern part of North Carolina. The first record of a Roach family in Orange County, North Carolina was in 1778 and 1780 when James paid taxes there. In 179 0 Lewis was added on as a taxpayer.

Although there was no federal census kept until 1790, several states required a close accounting of their taxpayers before 1790. Virginia required tax records be kept beginning in 178 2 and the people were under heavy penalties for not reporting during each year an accounting was taken. Because of the threat of heavy penalties, the registration of the heads of households as taxpayers is believed to be complete. I have searched the tax lists for 1782, 1783, 1787, 1800, and 1810, the only years of accounting, and have been unable to find Henry an d Catherine nor any Ashcraft families except for one Jediah Ashcraft in Nelson County in 1800. Eleanor J. Covey of San Carlos, CA., reports that Henry died in 1791. If he had been in Virginia in 1782, 1783, or 1787, he surely would have been head of a household or a registered t ax payer and voter. I cannot find him on these records in Virginia during this time. This causes me to believe he must have migrated out of Virginia before 1782. Eleanor Covey gives Henry's birth year as 1710 and his death year as 1791. He would have been eighty-one when he die d. If James were Henry's son, as I believe, his mother living in his home in 1791 was Catherine who migrated with him along with Henry, his father, from Virginia about 1775. And if Henry died in 1791 as Eleanor, a descendent of Ashcraft, has reported, he died in Orange County, North Carolina before James wrote his will.

After researching Virginia records, I have concluded that Henry and Catherine with their family likely remained in Amherst and Albemarle Counties of Virginia until about 1770-1775 when t hey migrated south into Orange County, North Carolina.

I am not alone in my conclusion that James, William, Littleberry, Lewis, John, and Mary are descended from the first Littleberry through his son Henry. Thomas Ed Roach, a descendent of James, notes the similarity of these names with those of Littleberry's children's names and implies that he believes them to be related to the first Littleberry in Virginia. (Source: Tennessee Number One 1984, by Thomas Ed Roach, Rutledge, Grainger County, TN page 242) Since Thom as Ed had been a serious researcher of this Roach line for several years before his death in 1985 and since he had accumulated a vast amount of material, I do not take lightly his suggestion of this relationship even though documentation has not been possible at this time. Also Eleanor Covey said in a recent letter of February 28, 1992, that Thomas Ed had written he r in 1984 that he was certain Henry and Catherine of New Kent County, Virginia were related t o the Orange County, North Carolina Roaches.

In addition to the other information that seems to relate the James, Littleberry, Lewis, William and John of North Carolina to Henry and Catherine of Virginia, the repetition of the name Littleberry is very interesting. There were ten Littleberry Roaches in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee who are all descendants either of the first Littleberry, or of his son John, or of his son Henry of New Kent County, Virginia in the 1750's. The name is not so uncommon in the Roach line but it is unusual enough to believe these most likely are descended from one common ancestor, the first Littleberry who came to Virginia about 1700 from his birth nation of Ireland by way of Genoa, Italy.