Poppleton is two places: Nether Poppleton (also called Water Poppleton) and Upper Poppleton (also called Land Poppleton). These are small villages a few miles to the northwest of York.

As of the 1841 census, the only Carrs in Upper Poppleton were Robert and Mary Carr. There were no Carrs in nearby Nether Poppleton at that time.

Robert Carr's wife, Mary, died in 1843. We do not know how many children they may have had together. After his wife's death, Robert married Elizabeth who was born in Nun Monkton, a nearby village.  Robert may have been in his late 60's or early 70's at that time, while Elizabeth would have been in her 20's. Robert fathered three childen with Elizabeth, Robert (b. 1850), William (b. 1856), and Mary (b.1858).

Robert's date of death is uncertain but may have been 1859.  In 1859, Elizabeth married John Nottingham. John was a member of a great Yorkshire landowning family though by this time the family had lost most of its lands and money. John was born in Hessay and had been brought up in Moor Monkton, two of the ancestral villages of his family. When he married Elizabeth, he was living in Upper Poppleton.

Elizabeth had a child, George, by John Nottingham in 1860.

In the 1861 census, Elizabeth's three children by her former marriage to Robert Carr, are shown with their father's surname of Carr, though they are described as if they were John Nottingham's children.

In the 1871 census, only Mary Carr is still at home, but she is given the surname Nottingham, not Carr. Maybe John was trying to raise Elizabeth's children by her former marriage as his own.

In the 1881 census, Elizabeth and John Nottingham are living on their own.

A son, Albert, was born to John Nottingham in 1883 (according to the 1891 census). Elizabeth would have been about 59 at this time, so Albert's mother is a mystery.

It appears that Elizabeth died in 1889 and that John Nottingham remarried in 1890. John's new wife was called Sarah Ann and we speculate her surname may have been Pinder. She appears to have been in her late 40's, so Pinder may have been a previous husband's surname rather than her maiden name.

We know that Elizabeth's son Robert (b. 1850) continued to live in Upper Poppleton and had at least 13 children. We have not as yet traced the lives of her other two children by her first husband Robert Carr.

Intriguingly, some of the Carrs of Barkston Ash moved to Poppleton. The first to come was William Carr (b. 1825 in Barkston Ash). William at age of 26 had been working on a farm at Saxton Cum Scarthingwell, just outside Barkston Ash, where he met his wife to be Ann Walker, who was also working on the farm, and who was from Upper Poppleton. It seems the couple decided to live in the bride's home village. William and Ann had at least 7 children born in Upper Poppleton.

William's father, also called William (b. 1797) moved to Upper Poppleton, and lived with his son, after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Binns. He subsequently married Sarah Steel nee Dyson, who was born in nearby Nun Monkton, and William and Sarah lived together in Nether Poppleton.