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My family have always believed that my great grandmother Anna Lock was a Romany gypsy. She was certainly dark in colour, with very curly hair. My cousin Heather could find no records relating to her when she was researching our ancestors quite a few years back. I did my own research more recently, & traced her mother's family way back, only to find they were just ordinary Suffolk folk. However, her mother Jemima Lummis (my great, great grandmother) was a widow when Anna was born. Jemima already had a daughter - Ann Maria Lummis when she married William Abbott. She went on to have George Abbott, & Jesse Abbott, before William died in February 1849. Anna was born in 1851. She was registered as Hannah Abbott in June 1851.
Jemima married Henry Lock in 1852, when Anna was a year old. Jemima then had Martha Lock in 1854. When Martha was baptised on Christmas Eve that same year Jemima had Anna baptised too. But she was given the name Hannah Lock instead of Hannah Abbott. Was this Henry's way of adopting her as his own? As she grew up her name became Anna Lock.
Was Jemima already expecting Anna when William died? Well, William died in February 1849, & Anna's birth was registered in June 1851! Maybe she was Henry's child anyway, but Jemima wasn't married to him at the time & Anna was given her mother's surname. I did notice that when Anna married John Ellis she didn't give her father's name. Was either man her father? Or was she perhaps the daughter of a Romany gypsy?!
My mother said she was put in a children's home when her parents split up, & her father took her from there to his parents where she was brought up by them. She hardly ever saw her father, except for a fleeting visit now & then. I grew up thinking my grandfather was on the run! None of us kids knew anything about him. Mother said she didn't know where he was. I found my grandfather's great niece Donna on Genes Reunited, & she told me all about him.
Apparently, my grandfather Daniel Baker found out that his eldest son John wasn't his child, so he & my grandmother Cissy split up. Cissy took the children - John, Margaret (my mother) & Michael to Cornwall. My grandfather was very upset that he'd lost his children. However, my grandmother came back to the area, & my grandfather found out where she was living. He then snatched my mother, & took her to his parents. Donna said that he went back for Michael, but my grandmother had gone. My mother was very young at the time. Was she told the story of the children's home by her grandparents to cover up what really happened? Did she know the truth? She got in touch with her mother when she grew up.
She never contacted her father. What was my grandmother's version of events?
Donna sent me photo's of my mother when she was young, & photo's of my grandfather both as a young man & later in life. A good few of them show my grandfather in uniform. He was in the army for years. That was why my mother hardly ever saw him! She forgot to mention that fact!
My mother had five half-brothers & two half-sisters.
It wasn't until my grandmother died that they found out their father Henry (Pop) Egan & Cissy never married. In fact, she never got her divorce from Daniel Baker!
My great aunt Mary Ann Ellis married Ezra Potter & they lived next door to her parents John Ellis & Anna (Nee Lock) in Burston, Norfolk.
Ezra & Mary Ann had two daughters Violet & Mabel, who went to the local village school.
When two of the teachers were sacked almost all the pupils went on strike. The leader of this strike was Violet Potter, then aged 13. The strike went on for 25 years in total ! It was the longest strike in history.
My uncle Norton married Louise Lummis, making her my aunt. Both of them shared a common ancestor - John Lummis, making them 4th cousins, once removed. So Louise Lummis was my aunt, & also my 5th cousin.
Violet Potter aged 13.
Anna Lock (Centre) Romany gypsy? with her daughter Mary Ann (Left), Ezra John Potter (Behind), Ezra's father John Potter (Back), Ezra's mother Christiana (Right), & either Gordon Potter or Bertie Ellis (Front).
Daniel Baker (Centre) with his parents
This is a newspaper article about my great uncle Henry Baker. It reads :
A 4ft SOLDIER
DIMINUTIVE EASTBOURNIAN IN KHAKI
There is little doubt that Pte. Henry Wallace William Baker can justify claim to be Eastbourne's smallest soldier. Although 18 years of age, he stands only four feet high and has been accepted for service.
Pte. Baker is a son of Mr & Mrs W. W. Baker of 9 Channel View, Eastbourne and prior to enlistment was employed as a porter at Mr. Sucifield's printing works.
He is a jolly little fellow and well liked. He was called up under the Military Service Act on April 21 and from Chichester was sent to the Middlesex Regiment. He was too small for the ranks, so was handed over to the drum major for conversion into a drum and fife bandsman and bugler. Pte. Baker enjoys the life, which he considers "not really so bad after all". He has been adopted as a sort of battalion pet.
Pte. Baker is the oldest of a family of eight, but is the only one who has not developed ordinary stature. He was very keen to join the service, and the only time he regretted his lack of inches was when he feared that it would be a bar to enlistment.
There is no date on the article, but as Henry was 18 years old at the time, then it must be 1916.
