Joseph was the son of Joseph and Jane Hanna Truswell nee Lane.
His father was born in Old Radford, Nottingham, birth registered 1859 (J/F/M Nottingham) and his mother was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, in about 1854. They were married in about 1883 and had four children of whom one died. Their surviving children were: Alice b. Nottingham 28 September 1884 (O/N/D Nottingham), Edward Frank b. Old Radford 1888 (J/A/S Nottingham) and Joseph b. Derby birth registered 1890 (J/F/M Derby).
In 1891 Joseph, an iron founder, and Jane were living on Bath Streeet, Derby, with their three children, Alice (6), Edward (2) and Joseph (1).
By 1901 the famiy had moved to Nottingham and was living at 6 Ledger Yard. Joseph was working as an iron moulder and his daughter Alice (16) was a laundress. His sons Edward and Joseph were still at school.
In 1911 Joseph and Jane had moved to 7 Forster Street, Radford, Only Edward (22), a boiler rivetter (general engineering firm) was still living at home. Also in the household was Joseph's widowed sister-in-law, Ann Maria Wakelen (75, b. Dudley Worcs). Of their two other children, Alice had married in 1908 and was living independently while Joseph was living with his married cousin, Edward Truswell (30) and his family, at Billings Row, Cropwell Bishop, Nottinghamshire, and was a labourer at a gypsum mine.
Joseph's parents later lived at 46 Redoubt Street, Radford. Joseph snr died in 1931 (O/N/D Nottingham) aged 72.
Of Joseph's siblings:
Alice married Levi Alderton in 1908 (J/A/S Nottingham) and they had one child, Elsie b. 29 April 1909 (A/M/J Nottingham, d. 1989 A/M/J Nottingham). In 1911 they were living at 95 Bulwell Lane, Basford, Nottingham. Levi (34 b. Headley Hants) was a coal miner; he died aged 51 in 1929 (J/F/M Nottingham). In 1939 the widowed Alice, a hosiery ironer, was living at 119 Bulwell Lane, Basford, with her unmarried daughter Elsie, a curtain examiner. Also in the household were Doris Daniels (b. February 1912) unmarried, a typewriter machine operator, and Derek Daniels (b. 14 March 1934). Alice died in 1956 (O/N/D Nottingham) aged 72.
Edward Frank married in 1911 (O/N/D Nottingham, Ethel A Smart or Annie Wilkinson). He was killed in an industrial accident on 7 May 1919 (A/M/J Nottingham) aged 30. Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 10 May 1919: ‘Truswell. On the 7th. The beloved eldest son of Joseph and Jane Truswell, accidentally killed. Bestwood Furnaces. Father. Mother, sister, and brother [brother-in-law], and niece Elsie.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Joseph was engaged to Agnes at the time of his death.