LOVELOCK

LINES
The Lovelock Family Newsletter
Editorial Address: 80 Doris Rd, Birmingham B11 4NF, UK
Tel. 0121 449 6402.
( August 2004 ) Email [email protected]

Printed and compiled at Birmingham Buddhist Vihara

Edited by Yann, with assistance from
John, Jeremy, Graham and Robert

Contents Greetings, far-flung cousins!

Editorial 1

Lovelocks Alive 2004 2 And welcome to the first issue of our newsletter.
– Graham’s account of the
family gathering
Whether it remains the only one will depend on you.
Famous Lovelocks 4 We found we had a bit of money left over from the
– a guide to the illustrious family gathering in June and, bearing in mind those
of that name who wanted to be with us but were unable to come, we
decided it might be a good idea to keep in touch with
George Lovelock 6
– the founder’s life and a you all this way.
gazetteer of the town of
Lovelock, Nevada The ‘we’ in this case is the group of us interested in ge-
nealogy who came together to launch the Lovelock
The Legend of Lovelocks 9 Family History website. Genealogy, we know, is a taste
House - John acts as
not shared by all, however enthralled they are by fam-
estate agent
ily history. Perhaps the newsletter can serve us as a
The Lovelock Collaborative 12 half-way house.
One-Name Study – James
Loveluck on how it started We need feedback from you, telling us what you think
about the idea. We need articles about family matters
Poem by Joy Lovelock 19
from you or suggestions about what we might cover
& Frances Vasey
(and who might cover it!) And, of course, if we com-
Editor’s Letters 20 pile any more issues, we need to agree on a subscrip-
tion to cover costs and postage.

Please contact us at the address above or via the web

site.
 LOVELOCKS ALIVE 2004

Graham Lovelock reports:

On Saturday 12 June some seventy members of Lovelock families or their descen-

dants gathered at The Bear Hotel in Hungerford, Berkshire, at an event arranged
by John, myself, Janet and Jeremy. Over a year in the planning, it captured the at-
tention of local television and news-papers as well.

People had come from as far away as Australia, South Africa, Canada, Spain and
France to join family members from many parts of England and Wales. As well as
exchanging family details and stories, we listened to presentations on Lovelock
research and the development of their family history internet website from John
Lovelock, James Lovelock and Australian enthusiast Robert Sterry.

Lunch followed the presentations and the group then toured several East Wiltshire
villages with family connections dating from the early eighteenth century to the
twentieth. They included Great Bedwyn, East Grafton, Easton Royal, Wootton
Rivers, along with a traverse of Savernake Forest, where fifteenth century Love-
locks were employed by the Seymour family as foresters.

Many new friendships were forged and family relations contacted, some even
meeting first cousins for the first time in their lives. All dined together in the eve-
ning, entertained by speaker Colin Dean, editor of the Somerset and Dorset Fam-
ily History Society’s magazine.

During the event this newsletter was planned for the particular benefit of those
without access to a computer or who could not get to Hungerford, including many
in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. It also contains articles not on
the website (http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/lovelock)
although many more pictures appear there than it is feasible for us to print.

2
 Left:

Second and third

cousins Ray, Yann and
Penny, great grand-
sons and great niece of
Elijah, by his grave in
East Grafton churchyard,
12 June, 2004.

Below:

Robert, Jeremy and James, untraceably distant cousins,

united in relief that the day is fine and the coach has
not stuck fast in the narrow country lanes.

3
 FAMOUS LOVELOCKS

Jack (John Edward) Lovelock, the son of English immigrants, born

in a small New Zealand town in 1910. He studied medicine at the Uni-
versity of Otago, then gained a Rhodes scholarship for Exeter College
(Oxford) in 1931. In 1932 - by then holder of the British Empire record
for the mile - Lovelock competed in the
Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The
following year, he set a new world re-
cord in the mile: 4.07,6, and in 1934 he
won the gold medal in the mile at the
British Empire Games. The highlight of
his career came in 1936, when he won
the gold medal in the 1500 metres at
the Berlin Olympics, setting a new
world record in the final (3.47,8) not
broken until five years later. After-
wards he graduated and became a doc-
tor, serving as a medical officer during
World War II. He was tragically killed
when he fell under a subway train in
New York in 1949. In 1990 a New Zea-
land postage stamp was dedicated to
him. In 2002 a life-size bronze statue
was unveiled at Timaru Boys’ High School. Here he had been head pre-
fect and athletic champion of the school in the late 1920s. A number of
hypothetical links to various Lovelock branches have been made, but
none are conclusive. By a singular coincidence, a young American stu-
dent called Nate Baer came to study at Otago University and took part
in a race in 2003. It then turned out that his mother, who died when he
was eight, was Jack Lovelock’s youngest daughter, Janet. Until in-
formed later by his aunt Mary, he had no idea he was following in his
grandfather’s footsteps!

4
James Ephraim (Jim) Love-
lock, b. Letchworth Garden
City in 1919 of a father origi-
nally from Didcot.

An independent scientist and

inventor, one of whose inven-
tions led to the discovery of
the greenhouse effect.

Educated first in Chemistry

then in Medicine, gaining his
Ph.D from London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medi-
cine in 1948 and his D.Sc. from London University in 1959. During the
1950s-70s he held a number of visiting appointments in U.S. universities.
Elected FRS in 1974.

Achieved world-wide fame as the originator of the Gaia hypothesis in 1979,

followed by several other books on that theme. Among many later honours
was the CBE in 1990. Recently he has fallen foul of conservationists by
championing nuclear generated energy. There is no information linking him
to any of the known Lovelock branches. More information about James Love-
lock can be found at http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/

His daughter is the artist Christine Lovelock whose web page is

http://www.chrislovelock.co.uk Under other names she has been a champion
runner and a romantic novelist.

Rev. Canon Dr Graham Loveluck, b. 1934. Formerly a

teacher, he took Holy Orders in 1975 and is now the Welsh-
speaking Rector of St Gallgo’s church on Anglesey. Until his re-
tirement in 2003 he had been Chair of the Diocesan Directors of
Education Group and continues on the governing body of the
Church of Wales.

He is a sixth generation descendant, via the eldest surviving son

of the Wiltshire-derived line of John Lovelock, whose name was
changed by Welsh pronunciation when he settled in Glamorgan.
His two sons are the rally driver Aled (b.1965) and the business
executive Hywel (b.1967), recently named as ‘one of Europe's
most dynamic entrepreneurs’.
5
 GEORGE LOVELOCK, 1824-1907
- the founder of Lovelock, Nevada

G eorge Lovelock was born March 11, 1824, in Swansea, Wales, but was
reared and educated in England. He married Mill Mary Forest in 1847 and
shortly afterwards they took ship to Australia, their first son Fredrick being born
during the passage.

In Australia George was employed in the copper mines for over two years,
after which he and his family embarked for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Leav-
ing his wife and child there, he set sail for San Francisco, California, arriving in
April, 1850. George had also learned the carpenter trade and for the first few
weeks he was engaged in building houses in Happy Valley. In May he went to
Sacramento, where in June he was joined by his wife and son.

Soon after they moved to Brown's Valley, and then to Feather River, where
George built the second house in what is now the city of Oroville. His son
Thomas was the first white child to be born there, September 1851. Next year he
moved to Marysville and then to Butte Creek, where he built a store. The little
California town there named Lovelock in his honour still exists.

During his stay in the area he was engaged in placer mining, teaming, and also
built a sawmill. At the beginning of the Civil War, however, the demand for lum-
ber ceased and he struck out for Nevada, eventually settling in 1866 where the
(second) town of Lovelock has been built. The place was then called the "Big
Meadows" and was a welcome stopping point for wagon trains on the California
Trail before crossing the forty-mile alkaline desert to the west. At the back of the
Humboldt Range, it lies at an elevation of 3,975 feet above sea level.

Upon arriving George bought the squatter’s right from the Blake brothers and got
with it the oldest water rights on the Humboldt River. He established his home
and operated a newly acquired stage station at a point nearly opposite where the
old railroad depot now stands. So far as can be determined the Blakes and
George Lovelock also completed one of the earliest irrigation canals in the
Lovelock Valley. They harvested the Great Basin wild rye growing in the mead-
ows and along the Lovelock Slough with scythes each fall and used or sold the
hay.

6
When the Central Pacific Railroad reached the site two years later, George
gave eighty-five acres for a town site which the company named after him. In
1870 it had four stores, three hotels, two saloons, a schoolhouse, a livery sta-
ble, and a blacksmith shop. George became the first postmaster for Lovelock
in 1875. By 1880, the city had four miles of streets.

Mary Lovelock, George’s first wife, mother of his children and sharer in his
pioneer hardships, passed away aged 58 in July 5, 1881, leaving eight children:
Frederick, Thomas, George Jr., Daniel, Stephen, Nellie Lovelock Carpenter,
Jennie Lovelock Ruddell, and Ellen Lovelock. Later George married Mary Ev-
ans, who accidentally drowned three years later in the old river channel which
passed back of their home. No children were born of the second marriage.

The mountains and hills surrounding Lovelock have more variety of minerals
than any similarly sized area in the world. There are huge iron ore deposits,
also deposits of gold, silver, copper, mercury, tungsten, gypsum, diatomaceous
earth, antimony, sulphur, fluorspar, the platinum group and manganese. Lesser
varieties include nickel, arsenic, lead, dumortierite, bentonite, jasper, alabaster,
pumice, mica, obsidian, phosphorus, bauxite, titanium, selenium and uranium.

Mining was George’s life's work and study. He was one of the first men in the
country to engage in mining enterprises and at the time of his death his hold-

7
ings were quite extensive. He was the discoverer and original owner of the American
Nickel Company's nickel and cobalt properties at Cottonwood Canyon and had valu-
able holdings in many other districts in the country. Hotels were a connected by-line.
In Lovelock he first owned the Big Meadow Hotel as well as one in Trinity when that
mining town was in its heyday. He also operated a large hotel in the silver town of
Oreana.

"Uncle George" was a short stocky

man with bush whiskers, extra wide
suspenders and a handkerchief around
his neck. He is remembered sitting on
the porch of his adobe home sur-
rounded by ore samples and the
town's children who gathered to hear
his stories and admire his collection.
His prized possessions were an un-
usually large pocket watch and chain
that he had brought from England; his
stogie knife with its long sharp blade
which he used to remove corks from
various types of bottles; and his
miner's eye glass, a tool of his be-
loved trade. He was never sick a day
in his life prior to the three days be-
fore his death. He often attributed his
longevity to his daily ritual of dipping
his penknife into a blue bottle of qui-
nine powder and consuming all its
point would hold. This was followed
by a cup of the wild sagebrush tea of
which he was so fond.

George Lovelock passed away at the age of 83 on March 28, 1907, following an attack
of pneumonia. In the delirium of fever the night before, he imagined he was going
down mine shafts, a candle in hand. Soon after his death a series of three fires devas-
tated much of the town, which then had some 1,500 inhabitants. There are only a little
over 2,000 to this day and major employment industries remain farming, mining and
services for travellers.

(Adapted from Elaine Pommerening’s account for the Lovelock Centennial Booklet, 1968.
More information on the town of Lovelock can be found at
http://www.city-data.com/city/Lovelock-Nevada.html)

8
 The Legend of Lovelocks House
John Lovelock

IGHT from when I first discovered it and for a number of years

since I have been curious about a building marked on the Ord-
nance Survey Map close to Junction 14 on the M4 Motorway
and simply called Lovelocks.

The property is approximately three miles north of Hungerford alongside the old
Hungerford to Wantage Road (now the A338). This section of road was cut in
two when the Motorway was built in the late 1960’s and a new road was built
approximately a quarter of a mile to the west as part of the Motorway junction.
Until at least the early 1980’s there was a sign at the junction of the old and
new road which stated Lovelocks only!

Curiosity got the better of me two years ago and I contacted Hungerford Li-
brary for the full postal address and name of the present occupier from the
Electoral Register. I then wrote to enquire about the history of the house and
why it was called Lovelocks.

The present owners rang to say that they did not know the origin of the name
but there was a carved memorial at the property to Francis Lovelock and I
would be welcome to visit to see it. It was carved by Captain Burmester who
also carried out a lot of carvings in St Stephens Church at Shefford Woodlands
about a mile north of Lovelocks House. The church also includes a stained
glass window depicting the property.

In the meantime I carried out research in Hungerford Library and Berkshire

Record Office and also contacted the Hungerford Society.

9
 The House

My research indicates that the house was built between 1820 and 1841.
The Hungerford Inclosure Award of 1820 indicates that no building was
on the site but the land was owned by Francis Lovelock.

Census Records and Local Directories indicate that until the turn of the
20th Century the building was known as Newtown Lodge (Hungerford
Newtown is about one mile south). The Property Deeds indicate that the
building was renamed Lovelocks House in 1900. The name appears in
Kelly’s Directory for the first time in 1931.

The 1841 Census lists Charles COXE 60 Clergyman, Eliza his wife 55
(and Francis Lovelock’s niece) and children Susan 25 and twins Caroline
& Francis 20. The Rev Charles Coxe is listed in Piggot’s Directory of
1830 living in Hungerford Newtown and he voted at East Shefford in
1832.

Charles COXE died in February 1846 age 66 and it was probably at this
stage that his son James Thring COXE moved into the property as he is
listed in the 1848 Kelly’s Directory and appears in the Census of 1851
and 1881. He also appears in Kelly’s in 1891 and probably remained there
until his death (aged 91) in 1900.

The property was unoccupied at the time of the 1901 Census but shortly
afterwards was occupied by Captain Arnold Charles BURMESTER.
During World War Two Italian POW’s were housed on the estate and
a Women’s Land Army Hostel opened there.

The Lovelock Connection

Francis Lovelock was baptised at St Lawrence Hungerford on the 9th April

1751, the son of Edward and Ann (FRANCIS d 1781) of Lambourne Berk-
shire (married 31 December 1747). The Lovelock Web site includes the
Will of Edward who died in 1780 and his daughter Ann (of Avington - a
small parish between Hungerford and Kintbury) in 1785. Francis also had an
older brother Edward (baptized 7 March 1748 or 9).

10
Francis died aged 83 on the 25th April 1834 and was buried at Kintbury
Berkshire on the 3rd May 1834. His grave indicates that he lived at the time
of his death in Avington.

I recently discovered that Francis’s Will is at the National Archives but have-
n’t managed to see it yet. If anyone wishes to take a look too, the Catalogue
Reference is PROB 11/1831 Piece Teignmouth Quire Numbers 251- 300.
This may reveal who the estate was left to.

The Lovelock and Coxe families were connected by marriage as follows:

On the 27th March 1780 Ann Lovelock (1753 -1785 - sister of Francis) mar-
ried James BUTLER of Newbury. James and Ann had a daughter Eliza Ann
(1783-1866) who on the 8th August 1808 married Charles Batson COXE of
East Shefford. Charles COXE later became Rector of Avington and East Shef-
ford.

Eliza and Charles had at least seven children including Francis Lovelock
COXE (!817-82) possibly named after Eliza’s great Uncle - he later became
a JP and lived at Eddington House nearby; James Thring (1817-1900, who
lived in Newtown Lodge); and their youngest daughter Caroline Mary.

A plaque in Shefford Woodlands (formerly East Shefford) Church notes that

Caroline married Major General Arnold E. BURMESTER. They had a son
Captain Arnold Charles (1857-1944) who married Alicia COXE (1857-1946).

A mystery remains

It is still a mystery why Captain Arnold Charles BURMESTER dedicated his

carving and probably renamed the house in memory of his Great Great Uncle
Francis Lovelock, particularly in view of the fact that Francis died 23 years
before he was born.

11
 The Lovelock Collaborative One-Name Study
by James Loveluck, with thanks to Robert Sterry for input and inspiration.

I N this article I’d like to do three things:

1) Take a look at how we managed to build up a very fruitful collaboration around

the subject of Lovelock family history.
2) Take stock of what we’ve achieved
3) Provide some pointers as to what still needs to be done, and some recommenda-
tions as to where we might focus our efforts in the coming months so that we
have an even more complete picture in time for the next Lovelock gathering!

How I got involved in Lovelock family history

I first became interested in my LovelUck family history in the mid 90’s and had a flying
start thanks to material inherited from my Aunts and in particular a fairly extensive
family tree for the Glamorgan Loveluck family which they had received from a distant
cousin, Janet Hearle, née Loveluck, since deceased. Since that time, the basic structure
of the Loveluck family tree is unchanged from that established by Janet Hearle over 20
years ago.

The Glamorgan Lovelucks can be traced back to a John Loveluck or Lovelock who
married Ann John at Margam, Glamorgan on 23 Nov 1765. Janet Hearle believed that
John Lovelock was born about 1740 in Wiltshire, and that he changed his name to
Loveluck when he moved to Glamorgan, possibly due to the Welsh pronunciation of the
surname. Janet had spent quite a lot of effort trying to locate the said John Lovelock and
was in touch with other researchers interested in Lovelock family history, including
Gwen Eastment (see below) and maybe Graham Lovelock.

Building on Janet’s work I have filled in quite a few details and made some corrections
to this tree, and in particular validated sources of information which were mostly
missing, but the basic mystery concerning John Lovelock is still unresolved, although I
have identified a couple of potential candidates:
• John L bap. 5 Apr 1738 Wroughton
• John L bap. 21 Oct 1739 Ramsbury
As far as I’m aware we don’t have marriage or burial records for either of these
individuals in Wiltshire, so it is possible that they moved to South Wales.

This isn’t the place to expound further on the LovelUck family tree, but anyone
interested will find lots of material on the LovelUck Web site:
http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/loveluck/
12
which includes some notes as to why John Lovelock might have moved from Wiltshire to
Glamorgan to work for Lord Talbot, who had estates at Lacock in Wiltshire and at
Margam in Glamorgan. There are also some colourful legends of pirates, shipwrecks and
even incipient cannibalism!

It should be noted that there are other examples of the Lovelock to Loveluck name
change, in particular in the Cardiff branch of the Lyneham Lovelock line – but in this
case it happened much later and is thus easier to track down.

Widening the Circle

Having a background in computing I almost immediately started using the Internet to

help me in my research, and it was through the Internet that I first got into contact with
Robert Sterry – our first email exchange took place on 18 Nov 1997 after I saw a note
from Robert on a Web site indicating an interest in Lovelock family history. Later I
learned that it was Robert’s cousin Gwen Eastment (née Lovelock) who first aroused his
interest in family history, and that Gwen had been a frequent correspondent with Janet
Hearle (I believe that they even met during a visit of Janet and her husband to Australia).
Much of the initial Lovelock material on the Web site came from Gwen’s original
research, and some of it is still there in one form or another. Since then Robert has been
my mentor on matters of family history research and he has also done a wonderful job of
extracting Lovelock events from Parish and other records, and gathering this together
with material supplied by others to produce our magnificent collection of “Lovelocks by
Parish” for different counties. This was particularly precious for me since, living in
France, access to British genealogy archives is not easy.

I first produced some family history Web pages in February 1998, but these were initially
devoted to my own LovelUck line, and access to them was restricted by password to my
immediate family and a few family history collaborators. However, later in 1998 I was
egged on by Robert to broaden the focus of the Web pages to a “Lovelock One-name
Study” following his example with the “Sterry Worldwide” Web pages – but we’re still a
long way away from the breadth and depth of Robert’s study! Initially, we concentrated
on Wiltshire, because of the indications that not only the progenitor of the Glamorgan
Lovelucks came from there, but also that it was the Lovelock heartland and possibly
where the name originated. Later we branched out to Berkshire and Oxfordshire, moti-
vated by the fact that Robert and Gwen’s line had roots in these counties (and, it later
turned out, that of John Lovelock), then to Hampshire (with help in particular from Gra-
ham Lovelock, with later contributions from Mike & Alison Turner, Colin Borrott-
Maloney and Jill Fleming) followed by a number of other counties.

Once I had the Web pages in place, we made contact with quite a few other folks
interested in Lovelock family history, including Ben Skeates (AU), Richard Dowd (AU),
Shaun Fitzpatrick (AU), Ken Gigg, Malcolm Lovelock, Jack Lovelock (NZ), Peter Frost,
13
John Gough and Helen Norton. 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 has 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”!

The number of folks exchanging emails was by this time fairly substantial (around 20)
and after a discussion we agreed it would be a good idea to establish a mailing list, so
that messages got sent to everyone who was interested. So in April 2000 I made the
necessary arrangements to set up the Lovelock mailing list on the Rootsweb server. For
anyone who is not already subscribed, you can do so by sending an email message to:
[email protected] with just the one word “subscribe” in the body of the
message.

Since these early days, many others have contributed material towards enriching the Web
site and it’s not possible to ist them all here. However, I do try my best to acknowledge
all contributions to the Web site, so please let me know of any omissions, which are
purely accidental.

What Have we Achieved?

Just in case anyone isn’t already aware of where to look on the Internet, the Lovelock
Web site can be found at:

http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/lovelock/

Here are a few statistics concerning the data currently on the site:

• A total of about 27MB of data in 440 files – this is for Lovelocks only, with
about the same amount for Lovelucks
• Approximately 4640 collected Lovelock parish records (compiled by Robert
Sterry), with separate files for different counties
• Approximately 4800 GRO records, mostly collected by Malcolm Lovelock and
Robert Sterry.
• Census records of Lovelocks from the 1841, 1851, 1871, 1881 and 1901 British
censuses (although we do not have all records for all years for all counties!)
• A Lovelock gedcom file with 2370 individuals. This is mainly Wiltshire Love-
locks, but also extends into Hampshire and other counties.
• A Berkshire Lovelock gedcom file with 1689 individuals
14
Remember that the number of records on the Web is slightly lower than the total records
collected, due to the fact that I omit details of living individuals on the Web pages.
Gedcom files are a standard file format which enables genealogical data to be shared
between different genealogy computer programs. All such computer programs are able to
import a gedcom file, although the results are not always perfect because the gedcom
standard is not always adhered to completely.
In addition to the collections of source records, the Web site also includes information
about the Lovelock name, a number of trees and fragments (see below), some notes on
“famous Lovelocks”, data on the distribution of Lovelocks derived from the 1881 and
1901 British censuses, some photos of Wiltshire places of interest (mostly provided by
Jeremy Lovelock and John Lovelock), a “What’s New” page which describes recent
changes and additions, and finally a page with information about the Lovelocks Alive
2004 gathering.

The Lovelock Mailing List

As of 12 August 2004 there are 74 subscribers to the Lovelock mailing list. The follow-
ing graph showing traffic between April 2000, when the list was set up, and May 2004,
just before the Lovelocks Alive ’04 athering. Activity is a bit sporadic, but the mailing
list has become a very useful communication tool. There is also quite a lot of off-list
communication between Lovelock collaborators. The total number of messages rose from
34 in 2000 to 212 last year.

Descendant Trees

Lovelock list emails

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0

Ja 0

Ju 1

Ja 1

Ja 2

Ja 3

4
O 0

O 1

O 2

O 3
Ap 1

Ap 2

Ap 3

Ap 4
r- 0

-0

r- 0

-0

r- 0

-0

r- 0

-0

r- 0
l-0

l-0

l-0

l-0
0

0
n-

n-

n-

n-
ct

ct

ct

ct
Ju

Ju

Ju
Ap

15
While the source records of Lovelock births, marriages and deaths are an essential
resource, most people are interested in constructing family lines in order to understand
where they fit into a Lovelock family tree. Building on the early work of Gwen Eastment
and Graham Lovelock (much of which is still present in the “Collected Lovelock
Fragments”), and with the help of many of the Lovelock collaborators, we have now built
up a number of substantial Lovelock Lines, the biggest of which are detailed in the
following table:

No. of entries No. of Lovelocks

Lieflock line 1034 572
Berkshire line 1689 334
“Fragment 10” 130 83
Lyneham Lovelocks 332 199
Wootton Rivers 78 65
Lovelocks
Glamorgan Lovelucks 1420 365

Note that the figures, which correspond to data as of June 2004, are approximate and may
change as the tree is modified or added to. The number of entries can differ significantly
from the number of Lovelocks, depending on how many female branches are pursued.
Thus, the number of Lovelocks in a tree is probably a better metric than the total number
of entries. The statistics are for descendant trees of the progenitors, which do not include,
for example, ancestors of spouses.

The progenitor of the Lieflock Line is Richard Lovelock who married Mary Head at
Preshute on 7 July 1706. Many of the Lovelock collaborators are linked to this line,
including Graham Lovelock, Jeremy Lovelock and Malcolm Lovelock. As mentioned
above, there has been extensive email discussion of this line, but there are still a few
details which are unresolved.

The Berkshire Lovelock Line begins with the marriage of a John Lovelock to Elizabeth
Woolf at Reading, Berkshire, on 3 October 1739 and extends into Oxfordshire and Aus-
tralia! This is the Gwen Eastment/Robert Sterry tree and also includes John Lovelock’s
branch.

“Fragment 10” begins with another John Lovelock (born about 1740) who married
Elizabeth O’Briant at Collingbourne Kingston in Wiltshire, but is mainly situated in
Hampshire. This tree includes Graham Lovelock’s maternal line.

16
I became interested in the Lyneham Lovelock line because it has a branch which extends
into Glamorgan, and I thought it might link up with my Glamorgan Lovelucks, especially
since it underwent the same mutation in the surname from Lovelock to Loveluck, but at a
much later date than for my Glamorgan Loveluck line. Several folks contributed to this
material, including Catherine Lovelock, Graham Wright, Carl Loveluck and more
recently Sue Lovelock, who provided new data and insight linking to Etchilhampton,
Bishops Cannings and Wroughton, so that the line now extends back to the marriage of
Abraham Lovelock to Priscilla Greenaway at Wroughton on 15 July 1689.

The progenitor of the Wootton Rivers Lovelock Line is yet another John Lovelock, who
married Mary Winter at Wootton Rivers on 15 October 1739. A number of collaborators
have links to this line, and have contributed to the material, including Ben Skeates, Robin
and Basil Lovelock, David Lovelock (Arizona USA) and Gil Berrett. There is also a
second smaller fragment for Wootton Rivers which has not so far been connected to this
main Wootton Rivers Line. In view of the proximity of Wootton Rivers to many of the
parishes present in the Lieflock Line, it would seem that there should be a connection
b e t w e e n t h e t w o , b u t t h i s h as n o t ye t b e e n e s t a b l i s h e d .

Stop-press! A revised identification of an individual in this line (as might be expected a

John Lovelock!) has led to considerable changes, with the result that a substantial part of
this Line is now linked to the Lieflock Line.

The Glamorgan LovelUcks is my own line and as already mentioned extends back to yet
another John Lovelock who married Ann John at Margam, Glamorgan on 23 November
1765. In addition to the early research by Janet Hearle, John Thomas and Elizabeth
Rushen, many others have contributed to this tree, including John Dixon, Denis
Rawlinson, Patricia Davey, Ron Davies, Lynne Davis, and my two Glamoran
collaborators Allen Blethyn and Ann Willis to whom I am extremely grateful.

Please let us know, if you haven’t already done so, if you are connected to any of the
above lines.

Where next?

A fundamental law of genealogy research is that it’s never complete, and can probably
consume an infinite amount of time and effort! So the best one can do is to define
priorities. Of course everyone has their own individual priorities related to their personal
Lovelock tree or branch, but here I’ll try to define some objectives which I believe will
be useful to the overall Lovelock collaboration.
The first of these is to continue to build up the excellent collection of “Lovelocks by
Parish”. Robert Sterry has been coordinating this activity, and I’m sure we all hope he
will continue to do so, but much of the work of actually extracting Lovelock events from
parish and other records is currently done by a small band of stalwarts including Robert
himself, Graham Lovelock, Malcolm Lovelock, Richard Moore, Ben Skeates, John
17
Lovelock, Jill Fleming, John Dixon, Mike and Alison Turner, Colin Borrott-Maloney and
Helen Norton (my apologies if I missed anyone out). I’m sure that any volunteers would
be greatly appreciated!
Another area which needs attention is the “trees and fragments”. In fact this covers a
multitude of sins. For one thing, the corresponding Web pages need some attention, since
they are currently rather badly organised and contain much obsolete or duplicate
material, ncluding fragments which have been integrated into larger trees. I hope to get
around to doing something about this real soon now. In addition, there is a need to trawl
systematically through the collected Lovelock records to identify which individuals are
and are not included in the different trees and fragments. Robert and I have made a start
on this by flagging in the collected Lovelock files those individuals linked to the
Lieflock, Lyneham and “Hampshire” lines. Once this is done we can try to connect up
those individuals which are not currently linked to a tree. One objective for this work is
to attempt to link the different trees, and in particular to do so across counties – we have
already made a start on this with the Lieflock, Berkshire and Lyneham trees, all of which
extend beyond one county (and even to other countries!)
The organisation and layout of the Web pages themselves is another area which can
always be improved. I recently changed the way one navigates among the Web pages,
which most folks seem to agree is an improvement over the previous layout. However,
any other suggestions for improvements are very welcome.
Finally, you may have noticed that many of the trees we have assembled terminate with a
John Lovelock born somewhere around 1730. If you have information on any of these
John Lovelocks please let us all know – I’m particularly interested in one who migrated
to Glamorgan sometime before 1765!

Some Conclusions
I’ve attempted to relate how a collaborative approach to doing genealogy research has
developed in a fairly spontaneous way over a period of six or seven years. The goals of
the research have gradually evolved over time towards the fairly ambitious one of trying
to map out as much as possible of Lovelock family history throughout the UK and
beyond (I’m thinking in particular of Australia and New Zealand, but we also have
branches extending to the US, Canada and South Africa). This collaborative work, almost
exclusively conducted via email, has been very rewarding for me, and friendships have
built up from the regular communication with other collaborators. It was quite an
experience to meet many of these people, almost all for the first time, at the Lovelocks
Alive 2004 gathering in Hungerford last June.
Finally, I have mentioned some of the early and major contributors above, but many other
people have contributed to the collective effort I’ve described and I would like to take
this opportunity to acknowledge their contributions. Sharing your bits of information,
even if it is limited, is the best way to make sure that the Lovelock trees develop and
eventually fit together.

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 The Lovelock Dynasty

The Lovelocks are a doughty race,

Fine in form and fair of face.
A clarion call went out one day
To see if they could find a way
For all to meet and each to greet
And welcome one another.

They looked around and found a venue,

Routes to follow, and fixed a menu
They came from afar
By plane, train and car
In the quest to find their ancestors.

Friendships were made,

Relations discovered,
History dug into and then uncovered,
Lost lines brought to light of day.

They came together and then departed

With memories shared, friendships started.
What a time they had
All hale and hearty
At the Lovelocks’ fantastic family party!

Joy Lovelock & Frances Vasey

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" Editor’s Letters #
Have Lovelocks a genetically inherited condition?

Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions

which force certain parts of the body into abnormal, sometimes painful movements or pos-
tures. Dystonia can affect any part of the body including the arms and legs, trunk, neck, eye-
lids, face and vocal chords It is not usually fatal nor does it affect the intellect. I was diag-
nosed with this genetic disorder four years ago. I have the type that affects the eyes and is
called blepharospasm . To my surprise, when I attended the Lovelock Gathering I met another
person with the same thing and I wondered if I had inherited it from my Lovelock connec-
tions. My neurologist is very interested to see if any other of my Lovelock cousins have this
disorder. If you have, perhaps you could contact me either at [email protected]
or 81 Topsham Rd London SW17 8SW. Thank you for your attention.

Jean Gilmore

WRITE A LETTER OF YOUR OWN

Now you’ve seen it, let us know what you think of our newsletter. Its con-
tinuity depends absolutely on your response. We particularly want to know if
you would like to receive further issues. Assuming they are about the same
size as this, we are thinking of making the subscription £2.00 for UK and
£3.00 elsewhere. Please send these to John Lovelock (who is dealing with
subscriptions for us) at 13, Coppice Way, Hedgerley, Bucks SL2 3YL or
email [email protected]

Assuming we do continue, we have in the pipeline further details of promi-

nent Lovelo\ucks and a feature on the appearance of the surname in literature.
The newsletter is not just about genealogy but will allow the family to share
news and views together. Many of you are specialists and maybe you’ll use
your expertise to enlighten us on such matters as the Lovelock Black Hole or
the mysterious Lovelock Mummies. Please send copy (or abstracts) to the
editorial address on the front of this issue.

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