Page 140 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

James (1946-?).
Fred who married Mary Lavinia Nunns (1890-1960) had two children – Elsie Elizabeth (1909-?) and Edna (1912-?) who both marry. Elsie Elizabeth marries Tom Bray in 1933 in Wharfedale, while her sister, Edna, marries Robert Preston in 1936, also in Wharfedale.
So what can one expect by the time of the 1961 census? In the 50-year period there were no known illegitimate births among this grouping and so one looks to what transpired from the marriages. There were known to be five marriages since 1911 where children had been forthcoming – Henry Hooper and Ethel, [NAME?] and Margaret, Leslie and Edith May, Sydney Barton and Shelley, and Eric and Alice, so there is scope for this grouping continuing to survive.
From the detail of the individuals what is the overall picture in terms of change among this grouping? Change is being considered in terms of occupation and residence – in other words, what is available from census information. Unfortunately, there is no more systematic information currently available from this source until 2021 when the census of a century earlier will be revealed. However, how does this grouping fare when one compares the entries in the 1861 census and the 1911 census?
This grouping had three locations in 1861 – Wakefield, Dewsbury and Halifax. There are three Soothills in this grouping who were in the 1861 census as Soothills – Arthur (now aged 51), Tom (now aged 53) and George (now aged 63). George and Arthur are brothers and, while George has remained in the railway industry as a signalman (his father was a railway guard), Arthur had moved into factory work being identified as a spinning overlooker. Tom seems to have moved in the opposite direction – his father, Samuel, was a woollen cloth dyer in the 1861 census, while his son, Tom, had moved out of the factory to become a wine and beer seller in the 1911 census with his wife shown as assisting in the business.
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