Jane, this afternoon I noticed a post you made on Ancestry.com dated 30 DEC 2002 regarding John Roakes.... How are you related to John Roakes?

We have a photo of and other information/documents regarding John Rokes (1803-1882 -- born in Sussex, England) who lived in Philadelphia, Halifax, Hartleton PA before moving by train to the Lamar, Missouri area in 1880. He moved to the Missouri area with his daughter, Rebecca Emily, her husband Luther Lucas, another daughter, Mary J., and her husband, Jacob Rudy. They are all buried in the Lamar, Missouri Cemetery and I have photos of the markers.... The Lucas family lived in the Hartleton area where the Rokes lived 17 years.

John Rokes married Mary Ann Buchanan. John served as superintendent of the Wiconisco Canal in Halifax, PA. He was granted citizenship on Feb.4, 1839 by the Court of Common Pleas in Dauphin County (Harrisburg), PA. BTW, John's name is spelled Rokes in his Petition for citizenship and is recorded as Rokes in the document issued by the Court.



Have you ever visited the Halifax Historical Society looking for information on the Rokes families? Do you know when John married Mary Buchanan or anything about the parents, etc of John Rokes? Do you know the dates he was employed as superintendent of the Wiconisco Canal? A couple of weeks ago I was able to spend some time at the PA Archives in Harrisburg reviewing some of the records of the Wiconisco and was unable to find any documentation containing John Rokes’ name.

Hope to hear from you....


Don Reynolds