About Thomas
Thomas Rootwell first saw daylight in York in spring 1878, eldest lad of a railway clerk. Taken on at the engine sheds at sixteen, he climbed to a trusted railway engineer whose crossings and cabins still bear his mark across the northern counties.
In 1903 he wed Edith Marlowe, a school-dame devoted to hoarding letters, ledgers and household sheets. Side by side they raised the roof-tree every Rootwell limb springs from — and Edith’s husbanded papers grew into the kernel of these very pages.
| Born | 14 March 1878, York, England |
|---|---|
| Family | Edith Marlowe (m. 1903) |
| Occupation | Railway engineer |
| Residence | York, England |
| Branch | Rootwell |
Raising the Household Seat
In 1911 Thomas secured the stone dwelling on Mill Lane that would roof three line-ups. Its loft kept the chapel books, likenesses and marriage papers later hunters used to push the thread two centuries further back.
Near Kin
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Each Limb Holds a Tale
Trail the Rootwell thread from 1878 to our own day — happenings, likenesses and the folk who breathed them.
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