Hampshire - Suffolk - Rutland - Herefordshire Tree

RL 20/6/07: Mary E and Eliza both appear in the 1851 entry (aged 3 and 1); both also appear in 1861, along with younger sister Kate (aged 13, 11 and 4). As regards a possible GRO birth entry (for Mary E), I can find only 2Q 1845 Lovelock Mary, Winchester, ref 7 237. If this is Mary E, why would her age be consistently inaccurate in the census extracts we have? (Although we do have Eliza - still with her parents John and Sarah - entered as aged 28 in 1881.) In any case, we have this 2Q 1845 entry satisfactorily allocated to Mary daur of William L and Sarah (Perren) in the Compton tree.

(I also captured 3Q 1851 Lovelock Maria, Winchester, ref 7 271, but this is almost certainly Maria Louisa bap 17 Sep 1851 at St Cross and buried next day, 18 Sep 1851, at St Cross (3Q 1851 Winchester, ref 7 189), the illegitimate daughter of Jane L bap 22 Mar 1829 at St Cross and herself buried 15 Jun 1854 at St Cross (2Q 1854 Winchester, ref 2c 64), again in the Compton tree.)

RL 20/6/07: Mary E and Eliza both appear in the 1851 entry (aged 3 and 1); both also appear in 1861, along with younger sister Kate (aged 13, 11 and 4). Eliza was still with her parents John and Sarah in 1881, entered as aged 28.

RL 20/6/07: Mary E and Eliza both appear in the 1851 entr y (aged 3 and 1); both also appear in 1861, along with younger sister Kate (aged 13, 11 and 4).

RL 9/3/07: Have so far found no Micheldever PR record at HR O of baptism abt 1865/6 of a George J L, grandson of Thomas and Olive.

RL 20/6/07: Graham and I had an exchange 1/4 Feb 2007 concerning the marriage and family of Walter L who we had as b 1867/8 Stockbridge [presumably from the 1871 and 1881 entries]. As a result of our explorations {more details below**} we believe the following birth entry is in fact our man: John Thomas L, Stockbridge RD 1Q 1868, 2c 86. He's entered as 'Walter Thomas' in the GRO record of his 1889 marriage [see also 1891 and 1901 census extracts - although he's just 'Walter' in both].

** Walter's stated place of birth in the 1891 and 1901 census extracts (with his wife and [in 1901] daughter), which Graham located, was Micheldever (like his brother George); whereas in the 1871 (Romsey) and 1881 (Annel Lane, Micheldever) entries (with his parents and his [widowed and remarried] mother respectively), he's recorded as born Stockbridge. Apart from this everything else we have is consistent with the 1Q 1868 John Thomas birth registration being our Walter (Thomas). Given the familiar difficulties around 'actual' birthplaces where we have GRO and census (especially 'varying' census) data but no PR record, I decided to re-check BMDIndex for Walter and his siblings. In addition, doubting from local knowledge that Micheldever and Stockbridge would be in the same RD, I turned to Genuki. Stockbridge, somewhat to my surprise, turns out to have been 'its own' RD until 1932; Micheldever, as one would expect, was in Winchester RD all the while. Perhaps the family moved when Walter was a babe-in-arms, in which case as far as he would have been concerned Micheldever was where he'd 'always' lived as a boy ...... Regarding the 'variation' in his names, perhaps the parents changed their minds about what to call him after registering the child. It doesn't seem to have been simply his own later preference to be 'Walter', since he was entered as 'Walter' both in the 1871 (aged 3) and the 1881 (aged 13) - so neither was it probably just his mother's idea.

RL 17/6/07: 4Q registration, which James would normally show as "abt Dec", but age cited in 1871 (2 April) census entry ("4 months") suggests born Nov/Dec 1870.