Which assciations you have in your mind, when you listen surname: "Rockoway"?

Question

To what nationality on yours this surname belongs

Answer 1

It sounds like pure New Joisey to me. But that's because you can't always sound out a name and get an ethnicity from it. You have to find the records and follow them backwards to find where it came from. The nationality is American if that's where they were born. If they were born somewhere else, then find the records to figure out where that was.

Answer 2

Not to offend, but 25+ yrs of experience has taught me to not go with what something sounds like, or guess.  It can be wrong.

What I do, is use records.. example.. using your exact spelling.. I easily find John Rockoway living in Pennsylvania in the 1930 census.  John was born in Poland, immigrated in 1908, and had all his children here. Wife Helen was born in the US but her parents came from Germany.

Here is a summary of their family-

Name:   John Rockoway

Home in 1930: Lewistown, Mifflin, Pennsylvania

Age: 48

Estimated Birth Year: abt 1882

Birthplace: Poland

Relation to Head of House: Head

Spouse's Name: Helen

Race: White

Occupation:

Education:

Military service:

Rent/home value:

Age at first marriage:

Parents' birthplace:



View Image

Neighbors: View others on page

Household Members:

Name Age

John Rockoway 48

Helen Rockoway 39

Felix Rockoway 19

Gladys Rockoway 15

John Rockoway 13

Leon Rockoway 12

Edward Rockoway 10

Maryann Rockoway 8

Frederic D Rockoway 5



(this isn't the original full image which is available from ancestry.com.. the image has more info).

This could be your family.. but I won't be certain on that. YOUR family may have had an alternate/ original spelling and came from somewhere else.