Hi Sadie
Sorry about that but when you said "The first sign of her is in the 1871 census Lanarkshire Scotland", I (and possibly a few other people) assumed that you did not have the 1861 census details
Have you seen the following entries on
http://www.familysearch.org/ ?
IGI Batch C005587
Christenings at St Michael, Ashton under Lyne.
Parents John & Sarah Hurst
21/09/1834 Sarah Anne Hurst
28/06/1835 Thomas Hurst
29/04/1838 George Hurst
As you say, the names are quite common for that part of the world and these might be a completely different family but they could be worth looking into.
I have not been able to find any of them on the 1851 census but the original documents for certain parts of Ashton under Lyne (and neighbouring areas) were damaged and are not available to be searched on the regular sites.
However, they (and the Taylors) may be included in the unfilmed sections of the census which certain people have got access to. You could try a specific request for a look up from the 1851 Unfilmed Census for each family if nothing else turns up.
Unfortunately, both families might also have been lost in the parts of the census which were too severely damaged to be retrieved.
DS
