I have searched in vain for any documentary evidence for the birth of Sarah Magdalene Roche, supposedly in Dublin, in the 1878-1882 period. Her birthplace is given as Dublin in three English census returns (1891, 1911 and 1921). As an adopted child, her birth name may not have been Roche, but there is reason to think that it was.
Details of the information I have on Sarah are given below:
The first sight I have found of Sarah is in the 1891 English census in Bootle, in the household of John Roche and his wife, Catherine Hayes (married Birkenhead 1869). John was variously a mariner and dock laborer. Sarah is said to be 11 years old, born Dublin.
I have not located Sarah in the 1881 census. John and “Kate” Roche may be the couple of that name in Kirkdale in that census, but this is uncertain.
Catherine (Hayes) Roche died in July 1896 and was buried on 29 July 1896 in Ford cemetery.
In the December quarter of 1896 Sarah married Jenkin Owen Williams in W. Derby SRD. A marriage at this date may indicate that Sarah was born earlier than 1878. Jenkin Williams was a captain in the merchant marine. There is quite a lot of information available on Captain Williams as he ran an ocean liner, the SS Southwark, aground in the Strait of Belle Isle in 1908.
In 1901 Sarah appears in the census in Bootle as Sarah M. Williams, with her father, but without her husband, who was presumably at sea. Age stated to be 22, place of birth simply Ireland.
In the 1911 census, Sarah age 32, is still in Bootle, with her father, and stated to be born Dublin, Ireland.
Her father, John Roche, died in Bootle in January 1912. In his will he stated that Sarah was his adoptive daughter.
In the 1921 Census, Sarah is with her husband in Birkenhead, age 40, born Dublin Ireland.
Sarah died on 4th May 1925, in Cheshire, and was buried in Ford Cemetery, Liverpool.
