This evening I have been entering details of the above couple and their family. On the Yorkshire Ancestry family tree there is an associated memorial inscription for Fred and Flora Fox which also includes George Sefton and Sarah Elizabeth Sefton. In addition, our marriage database records the marriage of George Sefton to Sarah Elizabeth Fox on 7th April 1928 at Christ Church, Knottingley.
Our transcript of the marriage register records that George, of Cow Lane, Knottingley, was a Bachelor of 23 years working as a Carter and the son of Tom Sefton. His bride, Sarah Elizabeth, of Sebastopol, Knottingley, was a Spinster of 22 years and the daughter of Fred Fox. It appeared therefore that Sarah Elizabeth was the daughter of Fred and Flora Fox and that all four individuals mentioned were interred in the same grave (plot no. 4249) within Knottingley Cemetery.
From the information available it was determined that Sarah Elizabeth was born about 1906 but there was no record of baptism at Knottingley. Turning to the 1911 census I could locate just one Sarah Elizabeth Fox that seemed a likely possibility but even though her year of birth was given as 1906 and the family were recorded living at Sebastopol, Knottingley, her parents were somewhat confusingly recorded as George Arthur Fox and his wife Hannah. I initially discarded that possibility but having been unable to locate any other Fred and Flora Fox or a Sarah Elizabeth Fox, I returned to it once again.
In the 1911 census, George Arthur Fox was recorded as being born in Dodsworth, Barnsley, while both Hannah, his wife of 13 years, and daughter Sarah Elizabeth were recorded as being born in Wortley, Leeds.
Turning to the 1901 census I located a Fred Fox and his wife Flora Fox at 242 Low Wortley Road, Wortley, the home of a widower by the name of Robert Wade. Fred Fox was recorded as ‘son-in-law’ so Robert Wade was clearly the father of Flora Fox. I discovered a marriage recorded at Leeds in the September qtr of 1898 between Fred Fox and Flora Wade, so was this the couple I had been searching for?
The 1901 census records that Fred Fox was born in Dodsworth, Barnsley, and that Flora Fox was born in Wortley, Leeds, so the birthplaces correspond with the information recorded on the 1911 census. The home address for the 1911 census was given as Sebastopol, Knottingley, which corresponds to the address recorded for Sarah Elizabeth at the time of her marriage in 1928. It would seem extremely likely that the Sarah Elizabeth recorded at Sebastopol in the 1911 census with parents George Arthur and Hannah is the same Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Fred, who later married George Sefton but if that is indeed the case then why are the given names of her parents recorded differently on the 1911 census?
Why would Fred be changed to George Arthur at the same time that Flora is changed to Hannah? Can anyone provide any insight?
