Page 296 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Part Two
Chapter Five
SPECULATING ABOUT WHAT CAME BEFORE
In this chapter I am trying to probe what came before the 1861 census. Up to now, speculation about connections has been very limited because there has been useful documentary evidence in the form of the decennial census, as well as birth, marriage and death certificates. Also the contemporary picture can be validated with correspondence and interviews with living respondents. However, the past is not always as sparse as I seem to be suggesting. There are the censuses of 1841 and 1851 which also mention individuals, but they do not seem as complete as the 1861 census.
To summarise briefly what has been achieved, all those currently using the name of Soothill have been linked back to Soothills living around one hundred and fifty years ago. However, there are still quite sizeable families who have not been linked up to the mainstream of the eight groupings of Soothills which have been developed over the past four chapters. An example is John and Henry Soothill who appear in the 1861 census. The story is currently incomplete, but space and time are the ingredients which may provide the crucial clues. In brief, persons who are close in space and time may well be connected. John was born In Manningham, - a suburb of Bradford – around 1819, as was a Henry Soothill, but currently there is no direct evidence of a connection. No others are born in the then village of Manningham around this time, so it is tempting to think of them as brothers, perhaps even twin brothers. However, there still the need for more evidence to link with any of the known Soothill families.
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