Page 211 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Peter John
M
19
GRANDS ON
Wakefield
Kenneth Alan
M
18
GRANDS ON
Wakefield
Muriel
F
40
DAUGHT ER
Wakefield
Lawrence M.
M
23
GRANDS ON
Wakefield
Dora
F
GRAND- DAUGHT ER-IN- LAW
n/k
By 1961 this grouping had 23 members of whom 15 were actually born as a Soothill. These 15 are direct descendants of just three of Thomas and Elizabeth’s large family of eight children. This contrasts with the 1911 census when this grouping had 25 members of whom 18 were direct descendants with the others moving into the family by marriage. By this type of measure this grouping seems to be maintaining its numbers. However, males are the mechanism for the transmission of the name – in 1911 there were eight males in the reproductive window of 18 to 50 years, while in 1961 there were seven in this age window. Hence, this Soothill grouping seems to be holding its own by the mid-20th century. Anyway, of Thomas and Elizabeth’s large family, only Hannah, William and Samuel of their children had representatives called Soothill by 1961.
Hannah’s illegitimate son, James (1844-?) and his wife, Eliza (1845-1934) had seven children of whom only Colonel produced direct descendants called Soothill in the 1961 census. Colonel himself had died in 1951 and his wife, Annie, had died a
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