Sarah Hannah Shepherd

[heywood]

There's a possible death:

Sarah H Pritchard 67 yrs

Chapel en le Frith December 1946 vol 10a pg 757

[keyboard86]

 That death looks to be correct as this is from the Derbyshire Registrars Index:-

Sarah Hannah Pritchard birth year 1879  Death Hayfield 1946 aged 67 Place Hayfield Register entry HD/G3-3/084 Register Office High Peak

Keyboard86

[Ella Cinders]

Thank you so much keyboard86 and Heywood, you've been a tremendous help to me.  It would have taken a very long time for me to arrive at these results.  Grateful for the information you have provided. Kind regards, Ella

[heywood]

It's a pleasure 

[Ella Cinders]

I've obtained marriage and death certificates based on the helpful information provided and you were correct so again I offer my thanks.  There is just one mystery with Sarah Hannah's first marriage to Matthew Soulby, I could never find a death record.  Perhaps he was missing and presumed dead and this is why Sarah Hannah remarried.  It appears he was serving in the Manchester Regiment at the time of the Boer War, he was serving in the military since the age of 18.  Any hints as to how I can research this further?  In 1885, he was in the 2nd Battalion Border Regiment (an amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) and 55th (Westmorland) Regiments.  In 1898, it appears he joined the 4th Manchester Regiment. 

[clearly]

This is just a thought but could the "quickie" divorce be because one of the parties was already married? If Matthew Soulby had already been married he could re-enlist in the Manchester Regiment and hi-tail it to South Africa?  There was no central record keeping by the Army and each regiment was responsible for its own records so if he moved from Kendal to Manchester, he would just "disappear."

[heywood]

Hello again 

Re Matthew Soulby

Groom's earlier reply indicates that his Army records are available on FindMyPast.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHYL-QCV

There are available records of his admission to the Reformatory School in Yorkshire. He is there in 1881 4558/95/22 - a sad life

He was baptised there in 1883

Do you have this - https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KM3G-GB7

Here is some information re Manchester Regiment Boer War casualties - I can't see him there http://www../Boer_War_Casualties_version2.xls

Do you have the birth record of George Edward Soulby 1899, Kendal. It presumably would just show Matthew is in the Manchesters?

British Postal Services show a Matthew Soulby appointed as a Postman in Whitehaven in 1900. However there is no other information.

I did wonder why/ how Sarah Hannah ends up in Northamptonshire  but I see Porter Jones was living there in 1891. His first wife dies in Wellingborough in 1897. All a bit of a mystery.

Maybe Sarah Hannah left Matthew   

Heywood

[Ella Cinders]

Thanks once more for all your help Heywood. The causality information on the Regiments was very useful as well as the information on the British Postal position.  It seems Matthew Soulby was the black sheep of the family at least in his early years.  His brother Christopher Soulby is on the Kendal Honor Roll having died in the Great War. Still unable to find a death record for Matthew, I thought he may have died in the Boer War, will keep searching.