Surname Saturday – create a post in which you discuss a surname and mention its origins, its geographical location(s) and how it fits into your genealogy research. Surname Saturday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.
My mother's maiden name was Rote. In March of last year, I posted the following in the surname database over on
Geni.com:
The Rote surname is of German origin. British Surnames and Surname Profiles indicates that fewer than 0.001% of the populations of the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia have this surname.
According to the for-profit site, House of Names, the name originated in Bavaria, probably as a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion. House of Names identifies a number of names (e.g. Roth, Rothe) as being related, but other sources are more tentative in making these connections.
Ancestry.com provides the information that in the United States, the name Rote was concentrated primarily in Pennsylvania at the time of the 1920 census. The number of immigrants to the United States appears to have been quite small, with most departing either Norway or Germany; Ancestry.com identifies these immigrants as having arrived between 1864 and 1887, with most arriving in 1874. There were a total of 69 US Civil War veterans with the Rote surname, 65 for the Union, 4 for the Confederacy.
So far, I've only been able to trace the Rote line back a small handful of generations:
- Galen Weiker Rote (b. March 16, 1888 in PA, USA, d. August 10, 1941 in Sandusky, OH, USA) to Alpheus McClelland Rote and Ella E. Ward
- Alpheus McClelland Rote (b. March 1865 in PA, USA, d. after 1930) to William Rote and Magdalena (Martha)
- William Rote (b. c.1814 in PA,USA, d. after 1880 in Shamokin, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States)
During the writing of this post, I've managed to discover a few more members of the family, although none in the direct line. However, I now have a few people to contact who may know more about my mother's family, so I'm very pleased.
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