ROWLEY RESEARCH

This is a home for all Rowleys-- no matter how you spell your name (Rowlee, Roley, Rolle, Rawley, Rowle, Raughley, etc.)  Likewise, while this website has its origin in the United States, we welcome participation from the world over and are adding 'Rowley' data as we find it.

If you're just curious, scroll down to the OTHER tab which will give you some exciting choices: stories of our ancestors, famous cousins (guess who?), some charts of researchers. NEW links to the recent additions and changes.

If you want to get right down to business, there are a few routes you can take. Click on any of the buttons to the left.  We have charts of Rowley (/etc.) descendants.  Branch One-- from Henry of the Plymouth Colony is the most numerous (thousands).  We are working on sixty-nine branches right now.  We are in the process of gathering source data, such as vital records, census entries, cemetery records, civil war pension abstracts, as they relate to the 'Rowley' surname and its variants. Books relating to 'Rowley' ancestors appear in the Bibliography section. 

Another route you might take is using "The Rowley Web Searcher" Click on the tab marked 'TO SEARCH' and it will take you to a search engine that will look at every document contained within this website (there are over 2,500 pages now online) searching for your designated ancestor, list them, and tell you how big it is.  Choose a document and click on it - you will be taken directly to it.   To return, use the "BACK" button on your web browser. 

The idea is to save the researcher time in looking up this data. So many of us are repeating endless steps that others have already taken. Let us put our efforts in finding those facts we do not already know, and share what we have with the world. To this end, we use a method we call 'Spencer Numbers' to distinguish Rowleys with the same name from each other. As we can, we indicate on the vital records the Spencer Number so we can tell which Rowley/etc each record represents. Click here for an explanation of the Spencer Numbers.

One more thing. Please share with your fellow researchers! The Rowley database is growing, and will only continue to grow with your help. Your little tidbit may be a vital clue for someone else.  

If you know that a specific vital records refers to a Rowley with a Spencer Number, please let me know and I will add that to our records.  It can save another researcher hours of work if they know that someone else has identified a specific person.  In addition, if and when you find errors here, do everyone a favor and let me know at . Thank you.