The bulk of the Roark family papers was compiled from 1993 to 2013 and contain photocopies of historical documents used for genealogical research, including county and family histories, immigration and marriage indexes, vital records, journal entries, correspondence, court records, photographs, newspapers clippings, deeds, land patents, and census reports dating back to 1790. There is also correspondence with other descendants in the Roark family line and other family lineages tied to the Roark lineage, as well as photocopies of histories and vital records, photographs of gravesites, newspapers clippings, census reports, and reference material related to genealogical research.

The primary focus of this collection is on the Bruner, Neal, Moody, Finkenbinder, Rader, Roark, and Scott family lineages, but there is also information regarding individuals in the Arnot, Barton, Blanchard, Bridges, Dodson, Donahue, Dupuy, Ellington, Guinn, Hanna, Hawkins, Heuton, Hickman, Hungerford, Jackson, Jasper, Maddy, Mayfield, Miller, Newman, Pancake, Rice, Richards, Snyder, Smoote, Storm/Sturm, Thomas, Wolfe, and Wood families. The papers focus on Doris Roark's family ancestors from Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

With the papers documenting Roark's genealogical research, the collection also includes reference files on genealogical research as well compiled binders of family group sheets and notes gathered from Roark's research on the Bruner, Donahue, Finkenbinder, Neal, Moody, Radar, Roark, and Scott family lines.

The collection is organized into five series: Family/individual research files, Pending, Research reference files, Family branches reference binders, and Census reports. This arrangement is based on groupings provided by Roark when the collection was donated to the Spencer Research Library.