Page 14 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

family tree. It is difficult at times to construct a coherent story for the evidence is often fragmented. There are certainly some surprises, but there is the danger of embracing the myth rather than recognising the reality. There are certainly hints of rather prestigious connections with the medieval Soothills seemingly of much higher profile than their Victorian counterparts. Another surprise is the appearance of a Soothill in America in the seventeenth century. There is an attempt to weave together the fragments and so provide a story of our origins etc.
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Part III, which is just chapter 6, is more diffuse in that it tries to capture the presence of Soothills elsewhere in the world. I remain convinced that anyone using the name of Soothill throughout the world can trace their origins back to a family living in England in either Yorkshire or Lancashire. To date, that has been correct, but one can continue to check the theory as more names emerge. The Conclusion is a brief one, for the body of the book has been rather repetitive and there is perhaps no need to repeat the same messages yet again. Nevertheless, it does still seem appropriate to remark that it is, indeed, a remarkable story. Certainly the family has fragmented and nowhere can be said to be the core of the family in the way that it was possible to recognise in Victorian times. All the same I suspect that most have a certain pride in having a name that is so unusual. I hope that this attempt at a history of the tribe shows what we all can share.
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While I have indicated the structure of the book, there are some conventions used in writing up this study of Soothills. Two published censuses – 1861 and 1911 – are the main focus of Chapters 1 and 2 respectively, while the ‘censuses’ of 1961 and 2011 which form the basis of chapters 3 and 4 respectively have been constructed by the author from various sources. Hopefully, they constitute what the actual censuses taken in these years are likely to reveal when they are published in around a hundred years’ time, in 2061 and 2111 respectively.
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Accuracy is an important ingredient of a family history. A more scholarly book would have a plethora of sources entered in footnotes. However, I felt that this would make the text unwieldy and less attractive, but there is still a need to point out possible inaccuracies. The most pervasive ones are probably some of the dates
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