Page 298 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Judith (b. abt.1771); Thomas (c.1806) and Elizabeth (c.1806); Edward (c.1811) and Elizabeth (c.1812); and William (c.1811) and Mary (c.1811).
David and Judith seem to be from a different generation than the others, so it is easy to surmise that Thomas, Edward and William are their sons who had now set up their own separate households. However, the first caveat in terms of that scenario would be that Edward and William would seem to have to be twins and, while certainly possible, on balance it was probably unlikely. However, I had started the search about a decade or so before the opportunity offered by computerisation of th 1841 census came about, so at the time I was restricted to the old-fashioned manual search. I can recall going to the more obvious locations of Halifax and Rochdale and coming up with a few Soothills in relation to the former and none related to the latter. It seemed a rather limited cull which I put down to my inexperience in searching through census records. Perhaps there was gold elsewhere, but I could not find those nuggets. While there were more names in the computerised search than I had managed to find, the puzzle remained as to why there were so few Soothills in the 1841 census, when a systematic search of births and marriages data since 1837 had rather suggested that there should be rather more. While it is possible that they had emigrated or even died (although a search of the death records helps to preclude the latter possibility), the missing names seemed rather ominous.
More about the 1841 Census
There were only 26 Soothills identified in the 1841 Census by the Ancestry.com search. In fact, there were only 18 males listed in the Ancestry search who could help to continue the Soothill name. The dearth of females – only eight – was even more evident. The hypothesis that there were really only a few Soothills round was soon rejected. This easy finding led to a second possibility, that is, that the 1841 Census is seriously deficient. In other words, the apparent shortfall could perhaps be explained by potential respondents failing to receive census returns or, more likely, failing to fill in their census returns. After all, many, if not most, of the population would be illiterate to some degree around this time.
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