Page 102 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

be in the 1861 census as there is no evidence of her having married. Anyway, we learn much more about Thomas and Benjamin after the 1861 census.
The marriage of Thomas and Betty Bedford in 1862 certainly reveals a family of Soothills not identified in the census of the previous year. Betty (probably christened as Mary Elizabeth and also known as Bets(e)y) was born in Luddendon, Yorkshire around 1839 and died in 1911 just before the census of that year. Thomas was certainly christened at St John’s, Halifax, in 1837, and is included in the 1851 census. At that time he is shown as living with his uncle and aunt, Thomas and Elizabeth Smith, in 13 Parkers Square, Halifax. (Parkers Square is where James, the 77-year-old Chelsea pensioner is living at the time of the 1861 census, but he is living at no.2 rather than no.13, but still perhaps they are connected in some way). The whereabouts of his parents – if they were still alive at this point – are not clear. It is perhaps tempting to suspect that his mother, Margaret, had died and that was why Thomas was with his uncle and aunt in 1851. Anyway, Thomas, at the age of 14 in the 1851 census is shown as an apprentice cabinet maker. Thomas continues to work as a cabinet maker throughout his working life. It is still shown as his occupation in 1887 at the age of 50. Thomas dies ten years later in 1897.
Thomas and Betsey had a fairly large family of six children – three girls and three boys. The eldest child was Joseph who was born in 1863. Joseph married Mary Ellen Kendall (1862-1938) in 1887 in Brighouse, Halifax. Joseph and Mary, in turn, also had quite a large family – four boys and a girl – Fred (b.1887) who died the same year as his birth, Lilian (b.1888) who did the same, Walter (1890-1976), Harold (1891-1965) and Albert (1894-1979). The three boys – Walter, Harold and Albert – all married but after the 1911 census, so I will deal with their families in the next chapter.
Thomas and Betsey’s next child, Albert (1864-1964), married Mary E. [SURNAME?] (1873-1945) in Halifax in 1900. In 1902 they had Constance who should, thus, appear in the 1911 census.
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