Can you find a source for this Tudor marriage?
QI have been able to prove that I am descended from Thomas and Margaret Dusgate of Cockley Cley, Norfolk. Thomas died in 1583 and Margaret died in 1611. I know that Margaret’s parents, John and Cecily Rookwood, were from Great Cressingham, and that her grandparents, Edmund and Alice Rookwood, lived at Euston Hall, Suffolk.
According to family trees on ancestry.co.uk, Thomas married Margaret on 11 January 1559. I contacted several Ancestry members who had this information, but those who replied said they had copied it from another tree and had no idea of the original source!
Could you suggest where I can find a primary or secondary source for this marriage? I’ve spent weeks searching parish registers, but to no avail. David Pitcher
AThe specific marriage date but lack of location is odd, and may mean that it is a ‘guesstimated’ event. Another possibility is that the date was given in a marriage licence or contract (prenuptial agreement) or the sale of dowry property.
Original Norfolk marriage licences are held at Norfolk Record Office ( archives.norfolk.gov.uk), with some copies on
familysearch.org, ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk. Film copies of licences and various indexes are also available to view at the Society of Genealogists ( sog.org.uk).
Not all Norfolk parish registers are online or indexed, especially in this area of the county. I checked Great Cressingham marriages up to 1565, but found nothing. Cockley Cley registers don’t survive before 1731, and Archdeacons’ and Bishops’ Transcripts do not start early enough either. For Euston, you would need to visit the Bury St Edmunds branch of Suffolk Record Office
( suffolkarchives.co.uk). Norfolk Transcriptions ( genealogy.doun.org/ transcriptions) and freereg.org.uk include entries not found on commercial websites or FamilySearch, so those are both worth checking. You should also try transcriptions created by local family history societies. In terms of secondary works, Walter Rye’s Norfolk Families mentions the Dusgate family, but not this marriage. Francis Blomefield’s History of Norfolk also contains details of major Norfolk families. Copies are held at Norfolk Record Office, Norfolk Heritage Centre, the Society of Genealogists and on CD from archivecdbooks.org. Another option is to look at wills and manorial records, which often reference marriage contracts. Norfolk Record Office’s online catalogue ( nrocat. norfolk.gov.uk) lists six pages of Rookwood/Rokewood wills, deeds, land records and marriage contracts, and five pages for Dusgate. These include the 1536 marriage settlement of Margaret’s parents John Rokewood and Cecilia Peper (NRS 19251, 33F6) and an 1815 Dusgate pedigree (MC 386/12). There is no reference to Thomas Dusgate and Margaret Rookwood, but not all of the settlements have been fully catalogued. Finally the Suffolk Record Office online catalogue at suffolk archives.co.uk has references to some Rookwood wills and transcripts. However, it’s not a comprehensive resource, so do make sure that you check the printed and card indexes too. Gill Blanchard