Page 233 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

John and Sarah Soothill (née Holt) married on 29 November 1861 at St. John the Baptist, Halifax and had a large family. The descendants in this line in the 1961 census are derived from John and Sarah’s youngest son, Benjamin (1872-1937), with the lines from the four older boys dying out. Benjamin married Mary Hannah Forbes (1876-1929) in Halifax in 1899.
Benjamin and Mary had five children, all boys, of whom only the third eldest, Charles Forbes (1904-1983) was still alive at the time of the 1961 census. Charles had married Mary Winifred (known as Winifred) Grummett (1909-1997) in Brighouse, Halifax, in 1932. They probably expected to be childless as their daughter, Christine Mary (b.1948) was born 16 years later.
Benjamin and Mary’s second eldest boy, Jack (1902-1948), had married Janie Park (1901-1967) in Halifax in 1925. They had three children – Audrey M. (1926-?), Jean M. (b.1929) and John B. P. (b.1937). John B P Soothill being born on 16 July 1937 in Halifax was a somewhat late arrival in this family. The girls had both married in 1949 and 1951 respectively when John was in his early teens. John married Christine Field in Calder in 1961, probably after the date of the census. This union produced Julie (b.1963) and Helen (b.1964). Both Julie and Helen have married to men named Kennedy and Ross respectively and, thus, will no longer be using their birth name of Soothill. Julie married in Halifax in 1982, while Helen married in Dewsbury in 1988. John married again in 1973, but there is no evidence that his marriage to Mavis Rushworth in Calder produced any issue.
68-year-old Rosella is shown as being alive for the 1961 census, but this may not be accurate. Rosella is the unmarried daughter of George and Elizabeth (née Barraclough) – George was the eldest son of John and Sarah (née Holt). Rosella’s unmarried aunt, Sarah (1864-1963), was certainly alive at the time of the 1961 census aged about 86. Sarah was the youngest child of John and Sarah (née Holt) and died two years later in 1963.
229