Page 62 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

performance with two children each, but still one short of the number that William and Margaret produced together. This is an illustration of the dramatic shift in the number of children between generations.
Of the total of eight grandchildren, five were boys. Hence, again it rests with the five male first cousins – Victor Farrar, Ronald Gray, Herbert William, Bernard Walter and Geoffrey Edward to carry the Soothill flag among this branch of the family.
Again this is simply the formal structure and development of this branch of the family over the fifty years from 1861 to 1901, but the further questions remain. Had, for instance, any of their economic circumstances changed? Were they in the same type of jobs and accommodation as their grandfather? Had there been geographical mobility and so on?
In the 1861 census there were just the two working brothers, William and Abraham, and they were both engaged in the woollen industry as a stuff presser and woolstapler respectively, whilst William’s link with Methodism is given some recognition. The family is firmly based in Halifax.
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John (1812-?) and Ellen (1815-?) (née Whitehead) Soothill
Entries in the 1861 census
Name
Sex/ Relationshi p
Age
Occupation
Where born
Current address
58