Hi Barbara
thank you, its a very interesting site! Ethel's father is John Wilson Thirsk and mother was Jane. She was born in 1890 but added a couple of years on the 1911 census putting herself 2 years older than Frank. The 1911 census shows that there seems to have been some confusion with what was the right thing to put down! Frank is Head, Ethel is down as Housekeeper,(wife was originally put down then crossed out) and her youngest is only 2 months old and called Frank. The other 2 children are 5 and 2, the 2 year old called Hilda May (one of his sisters who died young was called this). My suspicions are that they lived together and only got married in 1914 when he went to war. Frank was a Flour Miller. My next step is to see if they changed their name to Brotherton on the marriage or kept Thirsk as their name.
My next step is to keep looking on Ancestory and then to send off for a birth certificate of Frank Thirsk (the 2 month old)
thank you for replying to me, I am a little obsessed at the moment and spend most evenings looking at family history books.
kind regards
Elaine