In the past years, many family researchers have tried to find information about the earliest O’Rear that lived in America. So far, no one has been successful in that regard. The consensus is that the earliest of the name was a John O’Rea who seems to have been in Virginia about 1675 when a son, John O’Rea seems to have been christened. It is this writer’s opinion that the son may have been born aboard ship while his parent traveled to America and the record of his christening was after arrival. This opinion is based on a letter about the origin of the family written by Susan Marshall (an O’Rear descendant) in 1901. However, no records have been found of an O’Rea on any ship’s passenger list. This doesn’t mean that the name was never on a list, only that a list has not been found for various reasons including loss due to burning of courthouse records during the Civil War. 

Because we don’t know when the first O’Rear came to America, we also don’t know the origin of the first O’Rea. Again, we bow to consensus which at this time states the origin was probably Ireland. The consensus has changed somewhat over the years varying from Ireland to Scotland to France. 

For many years, the thinking was that the family came from France. This hypothesis was due to a number of factors, some of which are: (1) the settlement of the family near Brent Town which was primarily settled by French Huguenots, (2) the inter-marriage with some of those from that area that were of French ancestry, (3) the existence of a Sword that was variously claimed to have been given to an O’Rea ancestor by the King of France, (4) the letter from Susan Marshall indicates flight from persecution of the saints in Europe, and (5) the story that the O’Rear ancestors were French noblemen. Points one and two above may be just happenstance and the fact that the geographic closeness was the cause of the inter-marriages. It has been determined that the Sword of point three above dates from the latter part of the 1700s -- much too late for it to have any meaning about the family origin. The letter of Susan Marshall’s does not specifically state the country of origin, but the statement about flight from persecution seems to lend credence to the French origin theory. Yet, it could also be persecution due to the English Civil War. 

As for the story of the family being French nobles, there is some support of that based on the report in files of the late Ed. C. O’Rear II of Lexington, Kentucky. This report of unknown date (probably about 1950) was from an investigator in France who gave information on the Orré family. The name apparently is of Swedish origin although the family considered themselves Irish. This family (variously spelled Oree and Orea) seemed to have been of the Protestant persuasion and were apparently commoners in the 15th century that seemingly only lacked formalities which would have caused them to be noblemen. That at least some of the family must have been noblemen is thought because a register of arms gave a coat of arms for the Orré family of Poitou and Thouars. A hand-written description of the coat of arms appears to be: D’azur au Lion d’o armé el Iampasse de guelles et au chef couser de gueles, chargé de 3 macles d’argent. Ecu timbré d’un caique posé de profil. The family motto is: Non saeviat ore which was interpreted in the report as a latin pun, meaning speaking of the lion, his mouth won’t hurt you. The report states further that many records of the Orré family were destroyed and the family dispersed in the late 1600s following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes with most of the remaining records relating to those of the Catolic faith. 

One hypothesis is that the family left Ireland after the Charles I of England was beheaded. The theory is that they went to France from Ireland and then came to America. This is unlikely because England was not friendly with France at the time and would not have allowed direct travel of refugees to France. Of course, they could have gone to Sweden or Spain or some other country and traveled overland to France, but this is not considered very likely. 

Another family legend says that an O’Rea was an Irish baron in the court of Charles I. At the last minute as Cromwell seemed likely to win, the story is that Charles I entrusted his daughter to the O’Rea family to save her life, and supposedly the O’Rea family brought the daughter to America settling in New Jersey. The story goes on that Charles II came to America seeking his sister, never found her, and that she eventually married an O’Rea. There are a number of problems with this story. One is there are no records of either a Baron O’Rea or a daughter of Charles I. Another problem is that Charles II never came to America. Because most family legends have some basis of truth in them, one theory is that an O’Rea was a trusted servant of a baron, that it was the baron’s daughter that was entrusted to the family, that she was known to Charles II (a childhood playmate?), and that she was taken to the Isle of Jersey which is known to have been visited by Charles II (not necessarily to see her). However, no real research has been made concerning this theory. 

Supporting the current thinking that the O’Rear family originated in Ireland is the finding of five persons named O’Rea listed in the 1651 Irish Census near the village of Cappamore. This writer has seen claims that there were other O’Reas in Ireland not just near Cappamore at this time although no proof of these claims has been given. 

In addition to this, the affadavit made by George Washington O’Rear of Georgia on 17 Feb 1902 says that his great-grandfather came from Ireland. However, comparing his stated genealogy with the known family data reveals that the his great-grandfather was actually born in America as had his great-great-grandfather. Also his three-great-grandfather was either born in America or was christened here after being born at sea. Thus it seems that his claim overlooks a couple of generations. This overlooking of generations is not uncommon in stories such as this and in many printed genealogies, so the basic premise of his statement may be true, that one of his ancestors came from Ireland. 

While this writer acknowledges that the family may have last come from Ireland to America, it may be that the real origin is Scotland. The basis of this theory is that the great majority of Ireland is Catholic and most all of the O’Rear family seems to be Protestant -- primarily of a Calvinist background.