Page 218 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

moving into the family by marriage. By this type of measure this grouping again seems to be marginally increasing its numbers. However, males are the mechanism for the transmission of the name – in 1911 there were just five males in the reproductive window of 18 to 50 years, while in 1961 there were six in this age window. Hence, this Soothill grouping certainly seems to be holding its own by the mid-20th century.
John and Hannah Soothill had five children – David, Elizabeth, Louisa, James and John. Only the sons are likely to have direct lines to members of the 1961 census. One hundred years earlier at the time of the 1861 census, the mother, Hannah, had died and David (1833-1875), the eldest son, had already left the family home marrying a local Bradford girl, Martha Jowett, in Bradford Parish Church in 1855.
David (1833-1875) and Martha (1833-1905) had six children of whom the long-living Samuel (1866-1962) was still around at the time of the putative 1961 census. His son, John Edward (1891-1972) who had married Hannah Haigh (1890-1946) was also still around at this time, together with his oldest surviving son, also called John Edward (1917-1991) who had married Margaret Brown in 1943 was yet another generation. A fourth generation were their children, John Alan (b.1944) who had been adopted, Margaret Helen (1948-?) and Graham (1950-1986).
John Alan has been married twice. Firstly to Nina M. Howard and they had two children – Graham Robert (b.1966) and Ian Andrew (b.1969) and, secondly, to Phyllis Cawley (Cooke) in 1972. Michael S. born in 1965 seems to be the son of Phyllis Cawley and presumably was adopted when John Alan and Phyllis married. Anyway, Michael S. has become a Soothill. Neither Graham Robert nor Ian Andrew seem to have got married or had children, but Michael S. married Alison K. Cane (b.1960) in Rochdale in 1996 but they do not seem to have had any children.
John Edward and Margaret’s daughter, Margaret Helen, became Margaret Scott after marrying in 1970 in Middleton and nothing more is known about this couple.
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