Roseberry Bird is the progenitor of the BIRD Family Tree. The name Roseberry is a unique one indeed. Three members would carry the name before it fell out of use. It appears to be of English origin, as many persons hold that name in the mother country.

The Bird family's earliest known appearance is in the rural area near Wheeling, West Virginia sometime before the 1820s. Roseberry Bird is the earliest - confirmable - ancestor of the Bird family line. It is uncertain whether Roseberry is the original immigrant ancestor from England, or whether his parentage is likely rooted in the U.S.

The Bird's fortunes rose and fell with the times. In 1873 an epidemic of small-pox hit the Benwood, WV area. Two Birds would be claimed by this endemic in a single year. Still, the Birds were able to raise families which remained in the area for several generations.

The general area that the Bird family appears has an interesting footnote in U.S. history. During the late 1700's, the lower portion of Pennsylvania was then part of Virginia. Later, portions were returned to the state of Pennsylvania when the Mason-Dixon line was surveyed. The National Road was built during the 1820s, connecting Wheeling with the Eastern seaboard, and allowing the famers and merchants in the area to expand their markets. During the 1850s the B&O RailRoad was the first to extend to the Ohio River. During the Civil War, this same area refused to seceed from the Union and became, of course, part of West Virginia in 1863.

After the Civil War, the Bird family went several ways. Roseberry's oldest son, John Bird, moved west to Kansas - taking several of his sons with him. Roseberry's other children (Francis Bird, Howard Bird, Catherine Bird Carr) remained in West Virginia. Of the branch that went to Kansas, history once again interceded. During the years of the Great Depression, portions of the family moved onward to California, while still others returned eastward to the Washington, D.C. area. Of course, more still remained in Kansas. Now, branches of the Bird family are known to reside in West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia.