Page 308 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

eight members. On this occasion in 1851 there was just one non-Soothill, Mary A. Mason [?], aged 29. Elizabeth (c.1831) and Thomas (c.1837) were no longer in the household and did not seem to be listed elsewhere in the census. Elizabeth could have been married by this time, but Thomas seems a bit young (would have been around 14 years art the time of the 1851 Census) and so perhaps had died. Mercy (c.1829) was described as ‘Marsey’ in the 1851 Census, but was certainly the same person as the dates of birth tally. John was shown as a ‘card maker’ in terms of occupation and Margret (shown as Margaret in this census) was identified as a charwoman. With both Mercy and Martha now working, the family probably had little difficulty in economically surviving at this point.
Curiously most of the household members are missing from the 1861 Census. There is a Martha, aged 28, but this is Martha Soothill who married David Soothill and not the daughter of Joseph and Margaret. The exception is Elizabeth (c.1831) who is shown as unmarried and living at 4 Club Houses, West End, Sowerby. However, there are two Elizabeths – one is the daughter of Thomas (c. 1806) and Elizabeth (c.1806) and the other is the daughter of Joseph (c.1795) and Margaret (c.1803). This Elizabeth could be either!
In the 1871 Census – although almost certainly incomplete by the Ancestry search – only Benjamin (c.1841) was evident. He married to Harriet (c. 1844) who had been born in Sheffield, he now had a young family of three children to support. John William (c.1864) was the eldest, Margret (c.1867) had a name which probably showed deference to her grandmother who had probably died by then, while Mary Ann was only around one-year-old at the time of the census.
[Ed. The other important families are listed below but Keith did not manage to complete these.]
Joseph Soothill = Amelia Bagshaw
[To add]
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