Sarah Thorp was baptised at Knottingley on 1st May 1842 to parents William Thorp and Sarah. The 1861 census records Sarah as a visitor at the home of her sister Ann Crowther and brother-in-law John, at Tooley Street, Southwark, London where she is recorded as unmarried. By the time of the 1871 census Sarah has married and is recorded at the Bendles, Knottingley, home of her parents William and Sarah, under the name of Sarah Thompson, although her husband is absent.

According to FreeBMD records, a Sarah Thorp was married in the March quarter of 1868 at Pontefract, (Vol 9c, page 412) although there is no record of a corresponding 'Thompson' groom. However, also in March 1868 at Pontefract, (Vol 9c, page 112) there is a single marriage record of an Abraham Thompson. The similarity in the volume page numbers suggests the possibility of a transcription error.

The 1881 census does not reveal Sarah Thompson and the existence of a record of death on FreeBMD for the March quarter of 1874 at Pontefract (Vol 9c page 60) for a Sarah Thompson aged 31 years may explain why that is.

Can anyone confirm that Sarah Thorp married Abraham Thompson in March 1868 or let me know who she did in fact marry? Was this the same Sarah Thompson whose death was recorded in March 1874?

In the three months or so since the Digest Family History database was relocated to the Yorkshire Ancestry website we have made good progress and with the kind help of several members we have been able to increase the number of individuals featured on our family tree by more than 4,000. If you have experience of researching your own family tree then I'm sure you will appreciate the amount of work that is involved and the frustration of not being able to uncover that one piece of missing information that could put an end to many hours of searching and allow us to move onwards. So, in an effort to save valuable time, any problems we encounter will now be posted here in the hope that someone will be kind enough to provide the answer or offer further assistance. If you can help in any way then can leave a comment or reply directly at the end of all published requests by clicking the 'Leave a comment...' link.