(The "Rusk" Family Name Origin)
The following is copied from the first issue of "The Rusk Family Roundup" dated August 1979 and was written by Sarah E. Rusk, the Historian for the organization.
HOW DID THE "RUSKS" GET THEIR NAME?
The name Rusk binds us all together, but how did we get the name? In tracing the name back there have been some surprises. Many have taken for granted their purely Scottish or at least Scotch-Irish origins because many Scots, and among them Rusks, had settled in Ulster, North Ireland and are always referred to as Scotch-Irish.
But the name Rusk has popped up in a variety of connections. Our President Don Rusk found Rusks in Finland, during his visit last summer. In talking to some Rusks in Ohio, I was told by one that his father was born in Wales. Another said he didn't really believe he was a Rusk at all; his parents were born in Poland where the family name was Ruska. On immigrating to the U.S.A. they dropped the final "a". Was the last letter added at some earlier time or was Ruska an entirely different family?
In the 1850 census records for Hamilton Co., Ohio, I found that two young men named Rusk, Fred and Frank, each aged 24 and living in different Wards of Cincinnati, were both born in Germany. Where they twin brothers or unrelated? How did it happen they were born in Germany? And did the name have a more Germanic spelling before they joined the many Germans of Cincinnati? The same census for New York State lists two George Rusks - one age 18 of Madison Co. and the other age 25 or Renassalaer Co. each claiming Germany as his birthplace.
Then there is the Dr. Emmanuel Rusk buried in Montgomery Co., Ohio, who is described as a surgeon in Napoleon's Army! And Samuel Rusk, the Revolutionary War pensioner from Loudon Co., Va., was born in Manchester, England. People of course did travel in those days and maybe the Rusks, even if all of one family really got around! Certainly a surprising number got as far as the New World of America.
One theory is that the family belonged to the Celtic stock that settled in the Po Valley of northern Italy along with the Poe family to which Gen. David Poe and Edgar Allan Poe belonged. The name of the family was Roux then, from the French "roux" meaning brown perhaps from the predominant hair color that characterized many of the family. The idea was that when the family came from the continent to the British Isles their English and Scottish neighbors tended to pronounce Roux as Rux or Rucks and finally the spelling and pronunciation became generally accepted as Rusk. Incidentally a book of Scottish clans lists the Rusks as belonging to the Buchanan Clan.
So where, we Rusks all started from and by what routes the American Rusk families came here and whether we are dealing with several different roots of the name which all merged into one spelling is a fascinating puzzle which we'll hope to clear up as we explore our origins together.
The Rusk Clan is a Sept of the Clan Buchanon. The Crown on the crest is the Royalty Motto and "Clarior Hine Honos" meaning Brighter Hence the Honour. A history book indicates that the Rusk family emigrated from Scotland to Ireland around 1682.