The Thomas Moore Connection

Question

Hi, A big thank you to everyone who provided information regarding my Great Grandfather Edward Roper. I have managed to do a bit more digging and find more info about my family. There was a family story that Edward was an ancestor of Sir Thomas Moore's daughter Margaret (Moore) Roper and William Roper back in the Tudor era.  I have not managed to get back that far yet, but wondered if anyone could give me any tips on how I can research this, as there are lots of gaps in my research at the moment being a newbie, and being new to this I don't really know where to look. Many thanks.

Answer 1

Can’t help much with this research, but as I isolate with Covid, I have been watching “The Tudors” on Amazon Prime.   Thomas Moore is in the first two seasons of shows.

Answer 2

Work backwards, from what you know. Document each step of the journey. Don't start by assuming a descent from a particular family follow where tge evidence leads.

 When and where was your great grandfather Edward born? Find his baptism and if after 1837 (in England and Wales) his birth registration. Who were his parents?  Unfortunately it does become more difficult before 1837 because church records are the main forms of documentation. 

Margaret More and William Roper had two sons Thomas  Roper   and Anthony . Thomas married Lucy Browne and the couple had 12 children including six sons. On wikitree we only  have the descent through his eldest son  which eventually  stops with an  Edward Roper who died in 1723 with no issue The wikitree profile of Anthony,  the second  son of William Roper and  Margaret  More   needs a lot of work. He did marry and had sons. So there are possible descents from his sons and also from the other five sons of Thomas and Lucy Browne .  I suspect  some of these  may not have survived to adulthood and others may have left the country and become priests. The Brownes were prominent Catholics who intermarried with other  prominent Catholics. Many of the daughters of these families  became nuns and some of their sons became priests ' in exile' in other European countries.   As an example the principal descent from St Thomas More died out in 1807 with the only living  descendant being a nun  Dame Augustina More [ pdf of outline descent taken from Anthony Wood, The Family and Descendants of St Thomas More, 2008 accessed via https://thomasmorestudies.org/library/ ]. Nevertheless, it is possible that there are one or more continuous lines from the  younger son and  the grandsons  of Margaret Roper to the 19th C . 

Comments

Helen, maybe you missed the earlier post but the combined efforts of several experts have been unable to find a satisfactory origin for Edward Roper

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1580485/i-am-looking-for-information-on-edward-roper

His identity really needs to be established before worrying about Tudor ancestors. It's certainly not impossible but as Helen says we need to go step by step.