Page 17 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

make the book seem somewhat flooded with names. Hopefully, however, this approach gives scope for others to provide more detail, so that future editions may be enriched with more information about those just barely mentioned here. In fact, in this first edition, there is a trade-off. In the quest to mention everyone, there has been less space to mention in detail matters which are either very interesting and/or there is much more information available. The Dewsbury Knell is one such example. More detail would distort the balance and the book could become a recital of the more famous events and people. There is perhaps a need for this and is the next venture, provisionally entitled, Stories About the Soothills.
Anyway, I have decided to start this narrative with the 1861 census. As explained earlier, while there are earlier censuses which are available, with the 1861 census one seems to be on firmer ground and one can say much more confidently that the 1861 census does match up to the number of Soothills living in England and Wales at that time. However, as we shall see, there are still those who seem to be missing and, thus, avoided the census in some way.
In the 1861 census of England and Wales there are 31 households containing at least one person named ‘Soothill’.2 This produces a total of 115 persons named
Soothill in this census. Even at this early stage, there will be a few others who may have ventured abroad and, as just mentioned, there will be others living in England and Wales who, for various reasons, will not have been included in this 1861 census. However, it is quite clear that the Soothill tribe at this stage is a small one. In fact, it seems never to have been a large one with an estimate of around 129 persons in England and Wales using the name at the present time, indicating that little has changed over the past 150 years.
Without limiting the focus on those who have achieved on the public stage, how is this map of Soothills going to be drawn? Who then are the pivotal figures who
2. XXX lists 32 households containing a Soothill, but Households 4 and 18 are identical.
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