The Rucker side has been documented back to Peter Rucker, the immigrant, who is reported to be born about 1675 in either France or Germany. His name is Germanic, yet he was naturalized with several French refugees, leading historians to believe he came from Alsace-Lorraine, an area that was part French, part German. He landed in the US about 1700 and settled in Essex Co., VA.
No professional genealogist has been able to accurately Peter the Immigrant further back that what we have posted

We have had much better luck with the Briggs side of his family. I found a 3rd cousin, Susan Mincks O'Brien who has compiled a well documented family tree of the Briggs family. Susan and I have been in contact by e-mail and exchanged a lot of information.
In addition I have a letter that was sent to my mother in 1987 by a cousin, James F. Briggs which contains much Briggs family data.
Merging Susan's information with that in the Briggs letter has let me compile a family tree (the attached report) which documents the Briggs family from my grandfather back to John Briggs of Ireland in 1756.

I do  want to thank my sister, Jo Hardy as she has supplied me scans of old photographs of Rucker and Briggs (and others) and also for her remarkable memory. I hardly remember what I had for lunch today, but Jo can go back many years. I rely on her for all my family searches.

So, now I have Dutch, French and English on the Kent side and French or German and Irish on the Rucker side,
Yes I am "Heinz 57"........no doubt.