I'm looking for information about Roy Rogers (not the actor/cowboy).

Question

I'm trying to help my mother-in-law with her genealogy. She was adopted shortly after birth but has found who her birth parents were and they were in her life for a little while. Her father was Roy Rogers, born in the 1920s or before (MIL was born in the 40s). Last known location was around Tacoma, WA but that was back in the 60s. She has no other information about him, not even a full first or middle name, nor do we know if he's still alive. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Roy Rogers Boarder United States Census, 1940

birth: 1915 Texas residence: 1940 Harvard Election Precinct, Pierce, Washington, United States

COPY   PRINT   SOURCE BOX   SHARE  Attach to Family Tree  Roy Rogers United States Census, 1940 Name Roy Rogers Event Type Census Event Date 1940 Event Place Harvard Election Precinct, Pierce, Washington, United States Sex Male Age 25 Marital Status Single Race (Original) White Race White Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Lodger Relationship to Head of Household Lodger Birthplace Texas Birth Year (Estimated) 1915 Last Place of Residence Same House Household Role Sex Age Birthplace Mary Gural Head F 54 Austria-Hungary Frank J Gural Son M 23 Washington Roy Rogers Lodger M 25 Texas View the original document. The original may contain more information than was indexed. United States Census, 1940 District 27-40 Family Number 131 Sheet Number and Letter 6B Line Number 59 Affiliate Publication Number T627 Affiliate Film Number 4355 Digital Folder Number 005460347 Image Number 00920 Citing this Record "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9SH-5JD : accessed 22 November 2017), Roy Rogers in household of Mary Gural, Harvard Election Precinct, Pierce, Washington, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 27-40, sheet 6B, line 59, family 131, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4355.

Answer 2

Roy Rodgers Head United States Census, 1940

birth: 1915 Texas residence: 1940 Tract 26, Houston, Justice Precinct 1, Harris, Texas, United States

COPY   PRINT   SOURCE BOX   SHARE  Attach to Family Tree  Roy Rodgers United States Census, 1940 Name Roy Rodgers Event Type Census Event Date 1940 Event Place Tract 26, Houston, Justice Precinct 1, Harris, Texas, United States Sex Male Age 25 Marital Status Married Race (Original) White Race White Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Head Relationship to Head of Household Head Birthplace Texas Birth Year (Estimated) 1915 Last Place of Residence Same Place Household Role Sex Age Birthplace Roy Rodgers Head M 25 Texas Jimmie Rodgers Wife F 19 Texas Robert W Rodgers Father M 56 Arkansas Carrie Rodgers Mother F 53 Texas View the original document. The original may contain more information than was indexed. United States Census, 1940 District 258-156 Family Number 36 Sheet Number and Letter 2A Line Number 34 Affiliate Publication Number T627 Affiliate Film Number 4195 Digital Folder Number 005458109 Image Number 00238 Citing this Record "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K47T-BHT : accessed 22 November 2017), Roy Rodgers, Tract 26, Houston, Justice Precinct 1, Harris, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 258-156, sheet 2A, line 34, family 36, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4195.

Answer 3

Christopher,

Since Kay Bishop is still living, the details in her profile are private and we can't see them in case there is additional information that would help narrow down or focus a search.  

I did a wide search on FamilySearch.org and found a lot of records. I'm attaching a link to the search I did, so you can see the results yourself. I used a birth year range of 1905 - 1925, which is probably overly broad. Your mother in law can probably help you go through the results on this page and revise the parameters based on things she knows or remembers.  

Here is the link to the search results and the very wide parameters I used:  https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3ARoy~%20%2Bsurname%3ARogers~%20%2Bbirth_place%3A%22United%20States%22~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1905-1925~

I located three results (just in the first 2 pages of results) that mention Washington State.  The last two show Tacoma Washington as a place of residence:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95XC-33C?i=134&cc=1463676

Here are the two more that specifically mention Tacoma:  I think the results were from 1940. 

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2MCG-2H4

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2MCG-2H4

I'm not sure if the full list is too helpful, but it may help if you show the results to your mother in law, so it could trigger comments that would help focus the search.  (For example, if she remembers Roy's wife's name, that would help a great deal.)  

Reba

 

 

Answer 4

Thank you for your help. I asked my MIL to look through the information. She still wasn't sure about much of it but did mention a couple other tidbits. She doesn't know for sure when or where he was born, but his wife's name was Kay (yes, same as my MIL) and she was born in Kansas in 1945, so they were living there at that point. I'll keep going through and thinning down as I can. Thank you again for the great start!