Page 315 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

there were certainly other Soothills who arrived in the 1850s. Curiously, these Soothills do not appear in the 1860 census, but they do make an appearance in the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Joseph Soothill arrived in New York in 1856, but on this passenger list there is neither information about his age nor his parentage. It looks to be the same Joseph who is recorded in the New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, as arriving in New York from Liverpool on 20 March 1868 after sailing there in the ship, City of London. Again it seems to be the same Joseph who arrived in New York on 13 May 1897 in the ship, Teutonic; his port of departure is shown as Liverpool and Queenstown. On the 1868 and 1897 trips he is shown as an American citizen. On these trips his estimated birth date is shown as 1832/3. For the last two trips it is certainly the same Joseph and I am confident it is the same Joseph who first came to America in 1856 around the age of 24 years.
Joseph Soothill is listed in the U.S. Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865, and is shown at that time as being resident in Dunham, McHenry, Illinois. His age on 1 July 1863 is shown as 32 and so this would suggest he was born around 1831 rather than 1832/3. His place of birth is identified as England and, at the time of enlistment, he is shown as married.
Joseph is a very common name in Victorian England, but the Joseph who comes closest to being identified as the Joseph who went to the States is the Jospeh who was born in Halifax around 1832 as the son of William and Mary (née Holdsworth) Soothill. Currently I have no information on Joseph other than that he appears to have married Dinah Whitaker (1844-1924) in Keighley on 9 February 1892. Then he was aged about 60 with an occupation as a mill wright. If this is the same Joseph as the one who fought in the Civil War, there is plenty of scope for a marriage prior to the one with marriage to Dinah. However, there is no Joseph listed in any of the U.S. censuses which are available, so perhaps he was back in England in the intervening years. While his wife, Dinah, died in Leeds, England, in 1924, I have no evidence of this Joseph dying in England. So what happened to Joseph in the sixty
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