the family Rooke in Southill

[saraht]

Would anybody please be kind enough to help me with information regarding the Rooke family especially Samuel born c1844 as he is my maternal great great grandfather. I am new to all this and seem to have got stuck

thanks and kind regards to all

sarah

[Davran]

Hi Sarah,

You could try looking for him on the 1881 census - it's free at ancestry or you could look on the IGI at www.familysearch.org (http://www.familysearch.org) - that's also free. I assume you know at least one of his children, so that name will tell you if you have the right family. Once you have found him on a census you will know where he was born, so you will be able to find him more easily on other censuses. If you go back to the 1851 (you will have to pay for this one) you should find his parents and siblings.

Good hunting!

[janbooth]

Hi Sarah,

There is this family in the 1851 census of Southill which you can bookmark in case he turns out to be your Samuel. I assume you already have birth and marriage certificates and other pieces of evidence which have led you to a Samuel ROOK(E) born in Southill. If you let us know what you already have, I'm sure there are many people on this Forum who will be able to help you further. In the meantime, here is one to bookmark:

HO107/1753, folio 663, pages 4/5
Southill

George ROOK Head Mar 31 Ag Labr Bedfordshire Broom
Ann do Wife Mar 28 do do
Elizabeth do Daur 8 Straw Plaiter do do
Samuel do Son 5 do do do
Alfred do Son 2 do do

Broom is a village next door to Southill.

Janet.

[saraht]

Thank you for the good advice

Samuel Rooke had a wife called Susan who was born in Shefford, and they lived with his parents Jacob & Sarah, along with their children John and Elizabeth. I do not have Samuel and Susans marriage certificate so I don't know her maiden name and therefore am struggling to find any other details of the maternal side of the family.

Any other ideas would be gratefully received but in the meantime I am going to carry on researching like a mad thing!!

Sarah

[janbooth]

Back again Sarah,

This looks like your Samuel in the 1871 census of Southill:

RG10/1552, folio 49, page 2

Jacob ROOK Head Mar 61 Ag Lab Beds Southill
Sarah do Wife Mar 62 Straw Plaiter do do
Susan do Daur Unm 31 do do do
Samuel do Son do 27 Ag Lab do do
Thomas do do do 20 do do do
Thomas FANE Nephew do 10 do Shefford
John ROOK do do 8 Ireland
Elizabeth do Grandau do 6 do
Martha do Grandau do 6mo Beds Shefford

It looks as if Samuel and Susan are in Whittington, Derby in the 1891 census (RG12/2766, folio 25, page 43) with children George, James, Mary and Sarah. Interestingly, the next household down is that of the Thomas FANE shown in the 1871 census above. Samuel and Susan are still in Whittington in the 1901 census (RG13/3253, folio 5, page 2).

cont.

[janbooth]

cont...

It looks as if the enumerator in the 1871 census may have got Susan and Samuel's relationship wrong and have put unmarried instead of married. There is certainly no daughter Susan shown in the 1861 census of Jacob's family and Samuel is shown as unmarried. Given that Samuel & Susan's 1st child John is shown as 18 in the 1881 census of Whittington, Samuel and Susan must have married between 1861 and 1863. I then looked on the GRO Index for a marriage and found a Samuel ROOK married in Mar qtr 1862 in Biggleswade reg district vol 36 page 513. I then looked on the IGI and found an extracted record of a marriage at Southill on 15 February 1862 of Samuel ROOK, father Jacob, but to a Mary Ann HILLS so it looks as if he may have been married twice!!

It might be well worth your while ordering the Southill parish registers from your local LDS Family History Centre and trying to following the family through. You should then be able to see if Mary Ann did die and perhaps find a second marriage. Martha's birth is registered in the December qtr of 1870 at Biggleswade vol 3b page 347 according to the GRO Index. You can order her birth certificate online and then that should give her mother's maiden name - I'm assuming that she was the child of Samuel and Susan - which will make it a lot easier to trace her on other records. Good luck.

Janet.