A Short History of the Web Site


My initial interest in the Lovelock name arose from a study of my own family history, which can be traced back to John Loveluck (1739/40-1803), who married Ann John in Margam Abbey, Glamorgan, on 23 November 1765. John Loveluck was rumoured to have been born John Lovelock in Wiltshire, and to have changed his name from Lovelock to Loveluck, probably when he moved from Wiltshire to Glamorgan, in South Wales. More details of the Glamorgan Lovelucks can be found on the Loveluck Family History Web Site. I have not been able to establish with certainty whether this account of John Loveluck's origins is correct, although I have found a number of possible candidates, and in particular a John Lovelock baptised 21 October 1739, at Ramsbury in Wiltshire.

However, in my search for John Loveluck's origins, I was led to broaden the initial scope of my research, aided and abetted by Robert Sterry, who encouraged me to embark on a wider-ranging study of the Lovelock and related names. Since then, we have been helped by a number of other collaborators, and in the early stages these included Robert's late cousin Gwen Eastment (née Lovelock), Malcolm Lovelock, Ken Gigg, Ben Skeates, Helen Jones, Allen Blethyn, Ann Willis and John Dixon. In September 1998 the Web Site was separated into this one, covering Lovelock family history, and my personal Loveluck Family History Web Site.

A number of my correspondents (including Gwen Eastment) had sung the praises of a legendary Lovelock researcher by the name of Graham Lovelock, but no-one seemed to have a current email or postal address for him. In the end, it was Graham who discovered the Lovelock Web pages, and sent me a long email message on 26 January 2000, and has been doing so ever since (sending long email messages that is)! Graham very quickly made freely available much of the enormous amount of data that he had accumulated on the Lovelocks, and this considerably enriched the Web pages. It also led to a very long email discussion (lasting over two years altogether) mostly between Graham, Robert and myself about the finer details of the "Lieflock Line"!

More recently, many others have contributed, and I have tried to acknowledge their contributions on the various Web pages, and in particular on the What's New page (and in the Log files which contain entries from earlier years).

Over time, Graham became the driving force behind the Lovelock Web Site, and in June 2011 this was acknowledged by him becoming "webmaster" for the site, while I retired to a more background role, dealing with technical matters.

There is a more detailed account of the origins and evolution of the Lovelock One-Name Study, and the Lovelock Web Site, in the article 'The Lovelock Collaborative One-Name Study' in the First Edition of Lovelock Lines, with a brief update in the Fourth Edition.

James Loveluck