SMOAK FAMILY TREE
Related South Carolina Surnames:
Elkins, Hair, Nevils, Widener
The Smoak family has been traced back hundreds of years, and though the details of
this family's immigration to America seem documented, there are still areas which
lack clarity. I hope to present here an understandable outline of what I have learned
about this modest, but prolific clan of South Carolina.
The Smoak surname was previously spelled as S-M-O-K-E, which was the most common
spelling of the 1800s. There are several wise tales about how O-K-E changed to O-A-K
and why some use different spellings still today. One story claims that two Smoke
brothers migrated south from Pennslyvania. They both loved the taste of whisky, and
so one fell off his horse in North Carolina and then spelled his name, S-M-O-A-K;
the other fell off in South Carolina and spelled his name, S-M-O-K-E.
A more probate story is that a father and son Smoke living in South Carolina during
the early 1800s had a falling out. The father stayed in Orangeburg District and kept
the O-K-E spelling while the son moved to an adjacent county using the name Smoak.
Whatever the reason, both of these spellings are actually not originals, at least
as far as the family history shows.
The first of this family in the state of South Carolina did not spell his name either
of the mentioned ways. His name was Johann Georg Rauch (with mispellings of Rugh,
Rough, and Rouch in the earliest SC records). Why Rauch you may ask? Well, Rauch
in German means "Smoke."
Johann Georg Rauch is believed to be born in the Meisenheim, Rheinland District of
Germany in 1717. His father, Hans Daniel Rauch (1676-?) , lived in this same German
District DEU all his life. Johann Rauch married Maria Kohler, and they had two children
in Germany. In (1747?) the family came to Pennsylvania as part of a group of Swiss-Germans.
Some researchers claim he came on the Ship Robert and Alice in 1740, but his own
words seem to suggest otherwise.
In March 1748, Georg Rough(Rauch) applies for a 200 acre SC land grant where he was dwelling and stated that he had come from Germany to Philadelphia and then to SC with his wife and two children. Then in March 1750, he requested from the SC Council permission to return to Germany to bring other settlers and a German speaking minister. At this time he further stated he had come from Germany two years before with his wife and two children and obtained a 200 acre grant.
It has not been clearly ascertained whether he returned to Germany or not, but it appears so. One John George Rauch, his wife Mary, and their four sons arrived in Charleston, S.C. about 1766 aboard the Brittannia. I'm told a more complete record of this may be found in Council Journal 32, page 842-846, S.C. Historical Commission.
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