Strays and Unattached Lovelocks


Although we have assembled a large collection of Lovelock family trees there are still a considerable number of individuals who can not be placed in any one of those trees. These individuals are often the subject of fleeting references in, for instance, Parish Registers, in Newspaper articles, or in Census Returns.

Consider that there are over 700 people with the surname Lovelock (ignoring variations in spelling) who appear in the 1841 Census of England and Wales. As at the date of this page we have been unable to allocate no less than 143 of them to one tree or another. Part of the reason for that is because the 1841 records rarely indicate where a person was born, other than in the County of the record, or elsewhere, and in most cases the age of anyone over 15 was rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5. Of course, it has often proved possible, by reference to a later Census or to our parish collections of Lovelock births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials that we have assembled, to positively identify individuals and families in the 1841 Returns, but there is clearly more that might be done.

By 1851 the number of Lovelocks recorded in the Census of England and Wales had risen to over 800. This was the first Census to record place of birth and a relatively accurate age for all, so we would hope to achieve a better allocation of individuals and families to trees, and this is indeed so. However, there are still 93 men, women and children whose birthplace and age details are still apparently insufficient to enable us to place them in any Lovelock tree.

A similar picture can be painted for each of the succeeding Census Returns.

Most of the Lovelocks who are presently 'unattached' only appear in our data in a single Census entry, but for others a little more information can be assembled. The following entries relate to some of the most puzzling, or perhaps most intriguing, Lovelocks that we have come across. If you can locate any of those mentioned below into one of the Lovelock family trees please send a message to the Lovelock Discussion Group: lovelock@groups.io (instructions for how to join the Discussion Group can be found on the Discussion Group page).

Edward Lorenzo Russell Lovelock and his family
A Certified Copy of the Entry of Death for Edward Lorenzo Russell Lovelock shows that he died at 17 Grosvenor Square, Broughton, Salford, Lancashire, England on 11 December 1883. An entry in 'The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser' of 15 December 1883 refers to him as 'late captain and adjutant 8th LRV [Lancashire Rifle Volunteers], Bury', but records his name as just Edward Lovelock.

A plain ‘Edward Lovelock’ was recorded with his family living in Broughton in Salford, Lancashire in the 1881 Census. Based on his declaration for that Return, Edward was possibly born in the parish of St Anne's in Soho, Middlesex (the record simply reads 'St Annes, Middx'). If so, our baptism records elsewhere on this website do not include him. Although, as can be seen below, it seems that we can also readily identify this ‘Edward Lovelock’ in the 1861 and 1871 Census Returns, neither of those entries include any other given names or any initials. Our records of Lovelocks who were Chelsea Pensioners also include him, giving his date and place of birth as 1820, St Anne, Middlesex. His discharge papers, which show that he enlisted on 17 Jan 1840 and was discharged on 26 April 1861, also tell us that he had seen service in the East Indies (meaning India), and, revealingly, that ‘After reaching the rank of Sergeant he was tried by Court Martial in 1848, convicted of Disgraceful Conduct, and reduced to Private.’ However, by the time he left the Army he had achieved more promotions and had reached the rank of Sergeant Major.

According to the GRO's Online Index of Deaths there is no death of an Edward Lovelock registered in the Salford area between 1881 and 1891 apart from that of ‘Edward Lorenzo Russell’ in the Oct-Dec quarter of 1883, nor does there seem to be an entry in the 1891 Census for the Edward so comparatively easily identified in 1861, 1871 and 1881; this suggests that the 1883 death was indeed that of the military man identified in the three Census Returns that preceded it. Unfortunately, the age of Edward Lorenzo Russell at death quoted on his Death Certificate, 63, is not consistent with any of the ages quoted in the Census Returns, although it is consistent with the information in his Army Discharge Papers. Were there really two Edward Lovelocks, one of whom was recorded in three separate Census Returns, but for whom there appears to be no death registration, and another who does not appear in any Census Return, but who died in 1883 in the same area as the first man was recorded as a resident of in 1881?

As a professional soldier it seems likely that the Edward in the Census Returns was serving in Ireland in 1851, and even, perhaps, in 1841, as there appears to be no trace of him in England or Wales. There is also no Free BMD marriage entry for Edward and what is assumed to be his first wife, Ann, so it may have taken place in Ireland, and indeed Ann may also have been Irish. Ann died on 6 June 1857 at St Botolph Camp in Colchester, according to her Death Certificate, at the age of 21, recorded as 'Wife of Edward Lovelock Sergeant Major of First Battln'. She was buried at Colchester on 8 June. As it happens, we do have a record of the marriage of an Edward Lovelock and Anne Evans at Waterford, Ireland, on 10 March 1855, which fits admirably.

Oddly, neither the Free BMD nor the GRO Online databases have any record of the birth of their daughter Annie, born in Colchester in 1857 according to the 1861 Census for Walmer, Kent and the 1881 Census for Brixton Road, Lambeth. Perhaps Edward was being transferred from Colchester to Walmer at the time and the registration of the birth got overlooked, or perhaps he was preoccupied with the consequences of his wife’s death. Nonetheless, Annie was baptised in the Colchester Camp Church on 9 August 1857, recorded as the daughter of Edward and Annie. She seems later to have been the servant in a household in Lewisham, Kent in 1871, recorded as Anne Lovelock aged 13, born Colchester. Although she gave her age as 21 in 1881 (by which time she had married to become Annie Hearnden) she had declared she was 22 when she married in September 1878, so should have been 24 or even 25 in 1881. In any case it might be considered unlikely that there could be two Annie Lovelocks born in Colchester only a couple of years apart with no record of either of the births, and for one of them to then disappear without trace. Unfortunately, when Annie married the details of her father that were recorded named him as Edward Lovelock, Commercial Traveller. That could of course explain why he had ended up in Salford in 1881, but is not consistent with the 1881 Occupation information.

There was an Edward George Lovelock in the Barracks at Stoke Damerel in 1871, following in his father’s military footsteps by the looks of it, but he then disappears from view until 1911, when he and his wife Kate were in Uckfield in Sussex. It looked as though he could be the subject of the Death registration of an Edward in the Salford RD in Jan-Mar 1919 at the age of 64 (ie born 1854/55), but this is countered by the death of an Edward G Lovelock in the Uckfield RD in 1939 at the age of 83, and of Kate in 1956 in the Cuckfield RD, at the age of 91, showing that they did not move north.

Who the Edward was that died in 1919 appears to be another mystery; certainly the 1911 Census does not contain an obvious candidate for him, and although various Edwards come and go in previous Census Returns none of them seems to make a match.

There is only one entry in the 1841 Census of an Edward aged about 20, at Chapman Street, Finsbury, Islington, London. However, this can not be Edward Lorenzo Russell Lovelock for, as mentioned above, Edward Lorenzo had joined the Army over a year beforehand.

So, the data that we have accumulated on the website tells us that Edward was the son of Thomas (from the Waterford marriage entry), and was born about 1820 in the Soho area of London. Our ‘Lovelocks in Middlesex’ data records the marriage of a Thomas Lovelock and an Elizabeth Keys there, but that was in 1785, meaning Elizabeth would have been at least 51 by 1820, and therefore is most unlikely to have been the mother of Edward.

There do not seem to be any clues to indicate why Edward used, or had, the other names of Lorenzo and Russell, or why they only appeared at his death. The death was reported by his daughter Margaret, so could the names have been invented by her? But if so, one can not help but wonder, to what purpose? He apparently left no Will, which might at least have told us whether he himself used all three forenames. The Descendant Tree that can be assembled for Edward is presented here, noting that the last of his Lovelock descendants, Edward John Russell Lovelock, seems to have died in 1973:


1. Thomas Lovelock
    + Unknown Unknown
        2. Edward Lorenzo Russell Lovelock b abt 1820 in Soho, Middlesex, d 11 Dec 1883 in Broughton, Lancashire
           + Anne Evans d Jun 1857, bur 8 Jun 1857 in Colchester, Essex, m 10 Mar 1855 in Waterford, Ireland
                    3. Edward George Lovelock b 1855/6 in Ireland, d in Apr-Jun 1939 in Uckfield RD, ref 2b 179
                       + Kate Tribe b in Jul-Sep 1866 in Byfleet, Surrey (in Chertsey RD), ref 2a 29, d 6 Nov 1956 in Cuckfield RD, ref 5h 191, m 6 Nov 1892
                           in St Andrew, Westminster (in St Georges Hanover Square RD), ref 1a 884
                    3. Annie Lovelock b 1857 in Colchester, Essex, bap 9 Aug 1857 in Colchester, Essex, d in Oct-Dec 1921 in East Ashford RD, ref 2a 1102
                       + William Henry Hearnden b in Apr-Jun 1850 in Lambeth, Surrey (in Lambeth RD), ref 4 277, m in Jul-Sep 1878 in St Saviour RD, ref 1d 1
                            4. Constance Hearnden b in Apr-Jun 1881 in Lambeth, London (in Lambeth RD), ref 1d 465
                            4. Harold Hearnden b in Jan-Mar 1886 in Tottenham, Middlesex (in Edmonton RD), ref 3a 342
           + Mary Ellis b 1839/40 in Dinapore, Madras, India, m 14 Apr 1860 in St Dunstan, Canterbury in Eastry RD, ref 2a 1063
                   3. Margaret Elizabeth Lovelock b in Feb/Mar 1861 in Walmer, Kent
                   3. Russell Ernest Lovelock b in Oct-Dec 1862 in Bury, Lancashire (in Bury RD), ref 8c 372, d 24 Apr 1911 in Prestwich RD, ref 8d 169 (Notice in Manchester
                      Evening News)
                   3. Irene Marie Lovelock b in Apr-Jun 1869 in Bury, Lancashire (in Bury RD), ref 8c 439, d 15 May 1913 in Prestwich RD, ref 8d 343 (Notice in Manchester
                      Evening News)
                   3. Ada Minnie Ashton Lovelock b in Jul-Sep 1870 in Prestwich, Lancashire (in Bury RD), ref 8c 484, d 30 May 1958 in Bucklow RD, ref 10a 159
                   3. John Alexander Lovelock b in Apr-Jun 1875 in Broughton, Lancashire (in Salford RD), ref 8d 41, d in Jul-Sep 1925 in South Manchester RD, ref 8d 21
                      + Florence Annie Hardie b 13 Sep 1881 in Rochdale, Lancashire (in Rochdale RD), ref 8e 49 (in Oct-Dec quarter), d 22 Mar 1943, m in Jan-Mar 1911 in
                         Barton upon Irwell RD, ref 8c 889
                           4. Olive Margaret Lovelock b 23 Jul 1912 in Chorlton RD, ref 8c 1715, d 12 Dec 1957 in Manchester RD, ref 10e 193
                           4. Edward John Russell Lovelock b 20 Jan 1916 in Barton upon Irwell RD, ref 8c 1059, d 11 Nov 1973 in Manchester RD, ref 10e 872


Jane Louisa Lovelock
It is surprising how some people seem to have managed to avoid being 'captured' by governmental bureaucracy's tentacles on more than one occasion. One of those we thought came into this category was Jane Louisa Lovelock. On 6 November 1880 she married Charles Augustus O'Malley in the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool (in the West Derby Registration District). The fact is recorded in the Free BMD transcriptions, and in the church's register. But at the time of the 1881 Census the couple seem to have disappeared from view. Furthermore, a search through Free BMD failed to identify the birth of any Jane Louisa (or Louisa Jane) Lovelock. We wondered if it was possible that both Jane and Charles were Irish, that they met in Liverpool, and returned to Ireland once married.

That is how matters stood until late October 2016 when Sue Lovelock was browsing some Irish records and came across the Catholic baptism of Jane Louisa Lovelock, which took place on 16 July 1852 in Rahoon, Galway. The entry recorded her parents as John and Mary Evans, but this is clearly an error and we may conclude that the parents were in fact John Lovelock and Mary Evans who married in Galway on 7 Dec 1839. So Jane Louisa's origins seemed to be established, but the puzzle moved on since we did not know which tree her father belonged to, nor any details of what happened to her and husband Charles after they married.

It took the best part of another four and a half years for the connection to be made to an entry in the 1911 Census. At 36 Thurlow Street in Salford, Lancashire Jane O'Malley, a widow born in Salt Hill, Galway was living with her brother Michael Lovelock, born in Sandy Cove, Dublin around 1851, and her daughter Rosie, actually Rosina Jane who was born in Liverpool in 1884. The advent of the GRO Online Index providing mother's maiden names allows us to discover that Jane had another daughter, Mary Elizabeth, in 1882 who was also born in Liverpool. So we are a little further forward but still no wiser as to the ancestry of Jane's father John. Jane Louisa herself died in 1948, somewhere in the Liverpool North Registration District.

Margaret A Lovelock
Margaret is definitely a 'one-off'. In 1881 she was recorded as a Domestic Servant aged 18 in the household of George W Perry, Secretary of a Benevolent Society, at 29 Cologne Road, Battersea, London. Her place of birth is given as Camberwell, Surrey. She does not appear in any other Census Return, her birth and death do not feature in the Free BMD or GRO Online Index data, there is no record of a marriage, nor any entry in our 'Lovelocks in Surrey' data of any relevance. It is as if she was the figment of someone's imagination!


Arthur, Louisa and Eva Frances Lovelock
The London Metropolitan Archive imagery at Ancestry includes the baptism on 15 July 1896 at the church of Saint Augustine at Kilburn (in the Paddington area) of Eva Frances Lovelock. She is stated to be the daughter of Arthur and Louisa Lovelock of 3 Boyer Road, Arthur's occupation being recorded as a Painter. In the margin to the right of the entry is written '7 years', which may indicate that she was born in 1888 or 1889. Neither the Free BMD data nor the GRO Online Index include any record of the birth, marriage or death of Eva Frances Lovelock, nor of the marriage of an Arthur Lovelock to a Louisa. The family do not appear in the 1891, 1901 or 1911 Census, nor in our 'Ships Passenger Lists' data. And for good measure there seems to be no trace of 'Boyer' Road, nor of possible variants such as Bryes, Bryen, Bryer, Boyes, Boyen. Can the family really have just put their heads above the bureaucratic parapet on that one occasion in 1896?

Charles Edward Lovelock
Charles Edward makes three appearances in the available on-line data, but still leaves us with a mystery. In 1871 he was recorded at 8 Lascelles Place, Finsbury, London, together with his wife Frances and daughter Madeline. Madeline was recorded as being 6 years old and born in Ireland. The couple recorded as her parents must surely be the Charles Edward Lovelock and Frances Osborn who married in the St Giles Registration District of London in April-June 1867. Madeline's birth or baptism are not included in the small amount of Irish data we have gathered, but a possibility is that Charles was at some point in the Army - the usual reason for Lovelocks to appear in Ireland's records. He is not recorded, however, in the data on Chelsea Pensioners, and in 1871 his occupation was Saddle Tree Maker, which does not give any positive clues to possible military service. Charles died in July-September 1872, somewhere in the St Giles Registration District, his age being recorded as 33, which is not inconsistent with the 31 years recorded in 1871. On 9 February 1875 his widow married a Charles Simpson in the church of St George the Martyr, Queen Square, Holborn and the couple are easily found in the 1881 Census, although not thereafter.

Madeline was not with Charles and Frances Simpson in 1881, and seems to have escaped being recorded at all at first glance. However, at 102 Piccadilly, St George Hanover Square was a 23 year old Madeline Lovelock, employed as a Domestic Servant and born in Kent. Clearly the age and birthplace do not agree at all with the 1871 entry, but the next fact to emerge, uncovered by Ian Lovelock, casts matters in a rather different light. Moving west we find that on 26 August 1883 a Madeline Lovelock, aged 23, married John William Lord in St George's church in Bristol. The critical information in the marriage entry is that Madeline named her father as Charles Edward Lovelock. Madeline and John can be found in 1891 and 1901 (with her recorded as Madeline F Lord born in Beckenham, Kent in 1862 and 1863 respectively), in 1911 as Madeline Frances Agusta Lord born in 1863 in Bromley, Kent, and as Madeline Frances Augusta Lord born in Bromley, Kent, aged 58 years and 4 months in 1921. She died in October-December 1933 in the Bristol Registration District, recorded as Madeline F A Lord, aged 70. There is no corresponding birth entry in Free BMD or the GRO Online Index.

But the puzzle we have yet to solve concerns Charles Edward's origins. The 1871 entry gives his age as 31 and his birthplace as Shoreditch, but there does not seem to be any entry in any of the on-line resources that could be him. He does not appear in the 1841, 1851 or 1861 Census Returns.

John Birmingham Lovelock
“A List of the Officers of the Army and Royal Marines on Full, Retired and Half Pay” published in 1839 includes John Birmingham Lovelock as a Lieutenant in the 29th Regiment of Foot. The entry shows that he reached the rank of Lieutenant on 4 July 1811 and was put on half pay on 25 October 1821. An image in Findmypast’s collection of Military information shows that he was appointed Ensign in the 29th of Foot on 3 August 1809.

That image further reveals that he served in the Peninsula from December 1809 to November 1811, and again from April 1813 to February 1814. What appears to be a list of his “personal battle honours” reads ‘Bus, 1st Bad, Alb, Cadiz’. Another line in the entry seems to indicate that he was present at the Battle of Albuhera (sic) on 16 May 1811. In that battle the 29th lost (killed, wounded or missing) 17 of its 31 officers and no less than 363 of its 476 other ranks.

He appears in Captain Hart's 'New Army List' as late as 1845. His entry reads 'Lieut. John B. Lovelock served with the 29th in the Peninsula, from 1809, and was present at the battle of Busaco, first siege of Badajoz, and battle of Albuhera, at which latter engagement he was severely wounded through both thighs and in the head. Served also in America in 1814, and was present at the capture in the Penobscot, Castine, and Macheas.'. All of which confirms the abbreviated data in the Findmypast image.

An entry in 'The Westmeath Independent' of 2 March 1849 records the award of medals to a number of officers. Part of the entry reads 'Captain Lovelock, 29th Regiment, Barrack-Master, a medal with two clasps, for Albuera and Salamanca, in the former of which the flag-staff was shattered in his hand; the remaining piece was presented to him by his brother officers, richly mounted in gold, with a suitable inscription.'

After the conclusion of the Napoleonic campaigns the 29th Regiment served in a number of countries, including Ireland, so John is probably the groom mentioned in a marriage entry in the Register of Saint Luran's Church, Derryloran, County Tyrone which records the marriage by Licence on 15 January 1820 of 'John Birmingham Lovelock Sr Leut 29th foot reg. and Anabella Sophia Hamilton widow of the late Wm Hamilton of Cookstown'.

His death is not included in the Free BMD data, which suggested he was probably the John B Lovelock who was buried in Castlebar, County Mayo in 1849, 'in the 60th year of his age' according to an item in 'The Wexford Independent' discovered by Helen Norton. In 1839 he was a tenant of the Earl of Lucan, resident in Castlebar and named in an Address to the Earl by his, the Earl's, tenants.

There appears to be no record online of his birth or baptism, however, in the graveyard of St Mary's Dominican church in Claddagh Quay, Galway, County Galway there is the tombstone of an unidentified lady named Lovelock whose epitaph reads '... mercy on the soul of ... Lovelock alias Bermingham ...ed this life on the ... 1833 aged 80 years ... affectionate wife & a ... in the virtuous ... of life a most perfect ... this after having ... and spotless life of meekness she is gone ... the happy completion ... that divine promise ... monument has been erected ... memory as a tribute of respct ... son John B Lovelock Esqr rest in peace Amen'.

Further subsequent research by Helen Norton revealed an item in 'The Dublin Evening Packet' newspaper of 3 September 1833 which reports the death in Galway of 'Mrs Lovelock' and states that she was 'mother to John B Lovelock, esq, barrack master of Castlebar'. She is also said to be the widow of James, and for many years a resident of the island of Dominica.

Robert Lovelock
In the 1901 Census one R Lovelock was recorded as '3 Hand', a Fisherman, on board the 'Solon', a Grimsby trawler that at the time was 400 miles North-North-East of the Humber, so a long way from home. R Lovelock was a married man, 39 years old and born in 'London, Middlesex'. By 1911 Robert Lovelock had decided he was single, and aged 48, but still London born. He was in a house of only one or possibly two rooms in Great Grimsby, a house he shared with a Boarder, a Mrs Forkney.

There seems to be no trace of him before 1901 - no census entries, and no London birth of a Robert Lovelock in the 1860s. But if he was London born, how ironic that he should end up commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, just across the road from the Tower of London.

The reason he is remembered there is because he was one of 9 crew members of the Grimsby trawler 'Vanilla' who were lost on Sunday 18 April 1915 when their vessel was torpedoed out in the North Sea off Lowestoft. His entry on the CWGC website records him as the husband of Mrs Lovelock, occupying the address Robert was at in 1911, but there is no record of either of his supposed marriages, and no record of the death of anyone named Forkney anywhere between 1911 and 1980, nor of the marriage of a Forkney to match 'Mrs Forkney's' claim in 1911 to have been married for 20 years.

Walter Henry Lovelock
A 'Record of all Persons Committed, or Bailed to appear for Trial, or Indicted at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Durham on the Eighteenth day of October 1875, shewing the nature of their Offences, and the result of the Proceedings' lists amongst the miscreants Walter Henry Lovelock, accused of 'Larceny simple after previous Conviction for felony'. He was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, with police supervision for three years. There is no more information recorded.

He was clearly not one to learn a lesson as only three years earlier he had been convicted at South Shields Police Court of stealing three and a half pounds of beef from a butcher in South Shields, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour.

There seems to be no record of the birth of a Walter Henry Lovelock (or any variant of the surname) who could be this man. There are no records of a Walter Henry in any Durham Census, and indeed no Walter Henry anywhere in any Census in the UK prior to 1875; nor is there any entry of death in the GRO Index transcriptions at Free BMD.

There is a newspaper article mention of a Walter Lovelock, capitally convicted at Gloucester in 1823 for stealing a heifer, who was presumably reprieved as he is not listed on the British Executions Web Site . A Walter Henry Lovelock was listed in the Manchester Prison records for 1865, convicted of stealing a piece of beef in Rochdale. The entry indicates that he had 'No Home', and yet he claimed to be married. Perhaps that meant that he had abandoned his wife, but there are no entries in either the 1861 or 1871 Census Returns for Lancashire that could be her. If he truly was married then FreeBMD again has no record of it. However, sentenced with him at South Shields in 1872 was a prostitute named Sarah Lovelock alias McDonald, who was reported to have been his partner in crime in various locations.

William C Lovelock
If you look for William C Lovelock or just William Lovelock born 1888 plus or minus a couple of years in Deptford in the 1891, 1901 or 1911 Census Returns ..... you will not find him. Three no-shows? He must be the figment of someone's imagination, surely? But then in the 1921 Census at 3 Bronze Street, Deptford was William C Lovelock along with a wife and 3 children. It's not clear what he originally wrote as his wife's forename, but he overwrote it with 'Dorothy'. Which is a bit odd because she was actually Mary Ann (nee Akast) and had married him in Apr-Jun 1914. His age is recorded as 31 years and 10 months, indicating a birth in 1889, and his birthplace was Deptford. Turn then to the 1939 Register and the family had moved to 26 Norbert Street in Lewisham where he is recorded as just plain William (and she as Mary A). His birthdate was originally written as 1 Aug 1888, but written in what looks like pencil rather than ink above that is 31 Aug 1886. Be that as it may - there is no GRO birth entry to fit either date. He also appears in a report in 'The Stirling Observer' of his daughter Elizabeth Dorothy's marriage in 1940 to Thomas Scott Kinninmonth, a marriage hinted at by a later addition to the 1939 Register entry. He might be the William C who died in the Lambeth RD in 1948 aged 60, or the William who died in the Waltham Forest RD in 1968 aged 80, either one pointing to a birth in 1887/88, or indeed the William who died in the Deptford RD in 1965 aged 76, suggesting a birth in 1888/89. We can possibly rule out the first as helpfully he left a will which names his widow as Annie Elizabeth, although he could have married again. Was he born under another name and at some time decided to call himself Lovelock? We have a number of instances of Lovelocks, as this page evidences, making an appearance in the records and then disappearing from Census Returns afterwards, but only the example of Charles Edward above as a Lovelock who does not appear in 3 Census Returns that he should be in, but then appears in the public record afterwards.

Mary Ann Lovelock
Mary Ann seems to make her first documentary appearance in the 1881 Census for Northampton. She was recorded at 12 Ash Street in the town, working as a Domestic Servant for the Gibbs family. She claimed to be 17 years old, but did not know where she was born. In 1890 she married widower Charles Tero whose first wife, Cecilia Smith, had died in 1883. In 1891 Charles and Mary Ann were in Quart Pot Square in Northampton, with Charles' son Frederick, aged 17, and daughter Mary Ann, aged 10, both presumably from his relationship with Cecilia. Also in the household were Charles' two step-daughters - Kate and Elizabeth Lovelock, aged 4 and 2 respectively. Neither birth is included in the GRO Index. The last member of the household was one-month-old Ada Tero - the issue of Charles' and Mary Ann's union. Mary Ann declared she was 25 years old and had been born in Wandsworth in London, but there is no GRO record of such a birth. By 1901 Charles and Mary Ann had added another 5 children to their family, Kate and Elizabeth were recorded with their step-father's surname, Mary Ann had only aged by 7 years, but she was sticking to Wandsworth as her birthplace. By 1911 there were 2 more children, Mary Ann had aged 16 more years, but Charles made a mess of recording birthplaces, writing something obscure which has been overwritten, presumably by the Enumerator, so that all are said to have been born in Northampton. In 1921, with Mary Ann only having aged 6 years, her birthplace had reverted to being 'London', so no further clarification on that point. There is just one other piece of information, which may or may not be true considering Mary Ann's record. We do have the details of her marriage to Charles and, whilst she claimed to be 25 which at least more or less agreed with her 1891 declaration, she also stated that her father was George Lovelock, a Carpenter by trade. Fibbing to the last she died in Oct-Dec 1923, having aged barely 6 months since the 1921 Census! Charles did not die until 1934. Mary Ann's naming of her father as George may or may not have been true, but we do know that neither the 1871 nor the 1881 Census Returns for Surrey and London, which in their turn cover where Wandsworth was, include a George Lovelock who was a Carpenter, and none of the many churches in Wandsworth were the scene of the baptism of a Mary Ann Lovelock between 1860 and 1870.

Cecil Charles M Lovelock
The 1921 Census entry for 42 Commercial Road in the parish of St Peter in Hereford introduces us to Lily Lovelock, a 42-year-old widow running a Boarding House. With her were her daughter Dorothea and son Victor. The GRO Online Birth Index reveals that Lily's maiden name was Croft, which makes her the Lily Jane Croft who married Cecil Charles M Lovelock somewhere in the Hereford Registration District in the July-September quarter of 1904. Ancestry, Find my Past and Free Reg have no record of the marriage, but a Public Members Tree at Ancestry.co.uk avers that the marriage certificate indicates that the marriage took place on 17 August 1904 in St Paul's, Tupsley, Herefordshire, and that Cecil's third forename was McKenzie. By 1911 Lily was already running a Boarding House, but she was also already a widow. The GRO records do not include the death of a Cecil Charles M Lovelock, but there is the death of just plain Cecil Lovelock, somewhere in the Oswestry Registration District in the January-March quarter of 1909, at the age of 31. The Public Members Tree as above avers that the death occurred in the Oswestry Workhouse on 11 March, and was due to a combination of Tubercle of the Lung and Pleurisy. There is no birth of a Cecil Lovelock anywhere to match that GRO death entry. Furthermore, there are no entries in the 1881, 1891 or 1901 Census Returns for Cecil. In fact there isn't a single Lovelock in any of those three Censuses whose first forename was Cecil. He may of course have adopted a step-father's surname, but be that as it may there is no birth of a Cecil Charles M in the GRO data for 1877 or 1878. One thing we do know is that when Lily's son Victor married in 1928, a marriage to which Lily was a witness, her husband was named as Charles Lovelock, a Traveller by occupation.

Margaret Joanna Lovelock
In truth it is not really Margaret Joanna who is the Stray here, but rather her parents appear to be. Margaret's birth and death were registered in the July-September quarter of 1914, the birth entry revealing that her mother's maiden name was Campbell. However, there is no record of a Lovelock-Campbell marriage at any time between 1870 and 1914, so the assumption would be that Margaret's mother married under a surname from a previous marriage. There is one other piece of information concerning Margaret. The Find my Past website has an image of Margaret's baptism entry from the Virgo Fidelis Catholic Church in Upper Norwood, London, which shows that she was born on 13 September and baptised on 18 September. Curiously her father is not named in the entry, whilst her mother is named as Belle Lovelock nee Campbell. Side notes to the entry indicate that Margaret died on 20 September, and Belle's address was Coniston Cottage, Fox Hill, but that does not help to positively identify her.