Roberts Family Genealogical Papers,
Scope and Contents
This collection contains genealogical material on the Roberts family, descended from Robert Cadwalader of Wales and his children who came to America and settled in Gwynedd Township, using the surname Roberts. Family group sheets were collected into two bound volumes by Gilbert Cope. The remainder of the collection consists of two boxes containing duplicate group sheets, related correspondence, family memorabilia, and loose genealogical notes.
Dates
- Creation: 1864-1918
Creator
- Roberts, Charles, 1846-1902 (Contributor, Person)
- Roberts, Lucy Branson Longstreth, 1856-1936 (Contributor, Person)
- Cope, Gilbert (Contributor, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.
Biographical / Historical
The Roberts family represented in this collection were descendants of Robert Cadwalader of Wales and his children who came to America, settled in Gwynedd Township, and took the surname Roberts.
Charles Roberts (1846-1902) was a Philadelphia Orthodox Quaker who collected genealogical material relating to his family. After his death, his widow, Lucy Longstreth Roberts, hired Gilbert Cope, the noted Quaker genealogist, to put it into useful order with the intention of publication. Individual genealogical forms were compiled, but the work was never published.
Lucy (Branson) Longstreth Roberts was born in 1856 and was a life-long member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting for the Western District (Orthodox), also known as Twelfth Street MM. She taught in the First Day School and was a founder of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, which later became the Mission Board of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She was a president of the Friends Historical Association and was active in the Friends' Library, formerly on 16th Street in Philadelphia.
In 1880 she married Thomas Kimber Longstreth, a graduate of Haverford College and also a member of Twelfth Street Meeting. They had one child, William Collins Longstreth, born in 1882. Thomas K. Longstreth died in 1883. Lucy's second marriage, to Charles Roberts, took place at Twelfth Street MM in November 1892. Charles died in 1902, and Lucy Roberts died in 1936.
Extent
0.25 linear ft. (2 boxes (and 2 bound volumes))
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection consists of unpublished books and papers compiled by Charles and Lucy Roberts on the descendants of Robert Cadwalader of Wales and his children who came to America, settled in Gwynedd Township, and took the surname Roberts. After the death of Charles Roberts in 1902, his widow, Lucy Roberts, hired Gilbert Cope to continue the compilation and put it in useful order with the intention of publication. Cope had family group sheets bound into two large volumes, which he called “Book A” and “Book B”, and these form the bulk of this collection. The remainder of the collection consists of related books, notes, papers, and correspondence.
Arrangement
The collection has been divided into four series:
- Genealogy
- Correspondence
- Memorabilia
- Pictures
Physical Location
For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Library's online catalog
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donor: Frank H. Longstreth and W. Thacher Longstreth, 1982
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was given by the grandsons of Lucy (Branson) Longstreth Roberts. The papers were discovered in 1981 in the former carriage house of her home, by her grandson, Frank H. Longstreth, and given to the Library by him and his brother, W. Thacher Longstreth, in 1982.
Separated Materials
The following materials, originally part of the collection, have been removed and recatalogued:
- Descendants and Ancestors of George DeCou and Margaret Haskell Daniels DeCou, compiled by Frances Branson deCou, printed West Hartford, CT. Sept. 1, 1970. Catalogued in book catalogue.
- Copies of pictures originally published in Historical Collections of Gwynedd, by Howard M. Jenkins, 1884 edition, and Welsh Founders of Pennsylvania, by Thomas Allen Glenn, 1911. They are oversize, and have been removed to oversize picture files. Pictures include: Plymouth Meeting House; “Coed-Y-Foel”, home of Edward Foulke near Bala, Wales, from which he moved to Pennsylvania, 1698 (2 copies); Residence of Joseph Roberts (restored), near Gwynedd, Pa. (2 copies); Cadwalader Roberts (1777-1871); Charles Roberts (1784-1845) (2 copies); Elihu Roberts (1813-1885) (2 copies); Solomon W. Roberts (1811-1882) (2 copies)
Processing Information
Processed by FHL staff. Formerly cited as Roberts Papers.
Subject
- Roberts family (Family)
- Branson family (Family)
- Title
- An Inventory of the Roberts Family Genealogical Papers, ca. 1864-1918
- Author
- FHL staff
- Date
- 1983
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Find It at the Library
Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting repoductions from Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Library
