The Rucker family was just another family for me until some bits and pieces started pointing to the need for more investigation of the family. I did know they lived on the edge of the German community and then I started wondering if they were a part of the German community. Looking at the German atlas, I found the name Rucker, especially as a part of a combination name, was not unusual. The telephone directory confirmed that it was a family name. So when I saw that the name, in Virginia, occurred several times with German names (as I judged they might be), I begin to seriously wonder. When I have read that Peter Rucker was naturalized in 1704 (though I have not seen the documents) I considered that it was extremely likely that the Rucker family was German. I do not have any proof that John Rucker was the son of Peter.
Two of the associated families, who were probably Germans, but not normally considered in the Germanna literature, were the Offills and Cofers.
The Offill name is spelled in many ways, a fact which I often considered as indicative of a non-English origin. Some of the ways for spelling the name include Offield, Aufil, and Oppill. All of these are believable spellings by an English clerk of the German Apfel, meaning " apple ". This is not an unusual name in Germany. William Offill married Mary Rucker, daughter of Peter Rucker, who died in 1743.
Another family, with multiple spellings, is the Cofer, Copher, Coffer family. The Cofer family was perhaps not as early as the Rucker family. Thomas Cofer bought 70 acres on Elk Run in 1745, just south of John Rucker. One notable item, to me, about this name is the close similarity to the name Käfer. This is a name that is known in the Germanna community for Michael Kaifer (as the name is often spelled) lived a couple of miles, perhaps slightly more, to the north of Elk Run. In Germany, very little is known about the Käfer family. We know that John Nicholas Blankenbaker married Appolonia Käfer, and that, when they came to America her brother, Michael, came with them. Later he married Anna Maria Blankenbaker, after her husband, John Thomas, died. Michael had five daughters but no sons, so the name died out with him. Hence, the spelling in America is most uncertain. The book, " The Boone Family ", by Spraker in 1922, says that Thomas Cofer was born in Pennsylvania and settled in Virginia.
According to the Boone book, Thomas Cofer was born c.1715-1720 in Pennsylvania and moved to Madison Co., Virginia (then a part of Orange Co.). He died in 1791, so apparently his final records would be in Culpeper Co. George and Joel Cofer, attributed as sons of Thomas, were in the Culpeper Classes of 1781.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.