Catherine – or Kate as she would later be known – was the seventh of the eight children born to Joseph Young and his wife Elizabeth (née Noel).
Joseph, born in St Pancras in 1817, was the son of bookbinder Timothy Young and his wife Lucy (née Goddard). Elizabeth was born in Hendon in 1819 to labourer Edward Noel and his wife Ann. Joseph and Elizabeth had married at Trinity Church in Marylebone on the 31st of July 1844. At the time of their marriage the couple were living at 34, Park Street in Marylebone and Joseph was working as a waiter.
