The Loveluck and Related Families in Glamorgan

The main focus of this Web site is the Glamorgan Loveluck family, which settled in the area around Margam, Kenfig and Pyle in the late 18th century. However, there are links to many other Glamorgan families, including David, Davies, Jenkins, John, Jones, Marendaz, Powell, Thomas, ... The extent of the interconnections between these families is nicely illustrated by the fact that Ron Davies' web site, which is focused on a similar geographical area but started out as a family history of Ron's Davies ancestors, has considerable overlap with this one. Consequently, Ron and I have decided to coordinate our efforts in order to illustrate the interconnections without duplicating too much material.

The origins of the Loveluck family can be traced back with a fair degree of certainty to John Loveluck (1739/40-1803), who probably came from Wiltshire. John Loveluck married Ann John at Margam, 23 Nov 1765 and several generations of descendants lived mainly in a fairly small corner of Glamorgan centred initially on Margam, Kenfig and Pyle. There are a number of legends concerning John Loveluck, which involve his relationship with David Emmanuel Marendaz and the Mansell-Talbot family. These are described in the documents section of the web site. Further information is available concerning the Loveluck Name and Origins.

Subsequent generations of the Loveluck family spread further afield to Aberavon, Coychurch, Bridgend, Maesteg, etc. In later years the family dispersed further, and some moved to other areas of the UK, and also to other countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia and Chile.

The first generations of Glamorgan Lovelucks were mostly farmers, although some of the female members married into other backgrounds. In particular, John Loveluck's daughter Ann married Richard Thomas, who owned iron and steel works which became Richard Thomas & Baldwins steelworks, later to become the British Steel Company. Later generations of Lovelucks also included a number of farmers, but also other trades and professions. In particular Lovelucks could be found in marine related occupations, not surprisingly in view of the proximity of the Glamorgan ports of Cardiff and Swansea. The marine connections are illustrated by some relevant shipping records (contributed by John Dixon and Graham Lovelock) and a transcript of the journal of James Courtis Loveluck, describing a voyage by sea from Cardiff to Istanbul, and then on to the Ukrainian ports of Odessa and Nikolayev.

Web Site Organisation

You can navigate the web site using the menus at the top of the page. There are sections on source records and a collection of documents concerning the Loveluck family. However, perhaps the most important section concerns the family tree database, which can be browsed using the Kiwitrees tool. Kiwitrees is a web based tool for visualising family history data represented in the standard GEDCOM format, and provides access to source references as well as names, dates and places. You will find details of recent changes to the web site on the What's New page.

Sources and Collaborators

In addition to the usual public sources of information, many people have contributed information to this web site, and I have provided a Note on Information Sources in a separate section.  However, one major source of information should be mentioned here: some years ago, Janet Hearle (née Loveluck) did extensive research on the Glamorgan Lovelucks, and much of the material on this web site is based on her research. In particular, I have transcribed (with some comments) Janet's document The Early Loveluck Family of Glamorgan, and the Loveluck family tree is based on one developed by Janet Hearle. However, Janet provided very little information about information sources, so quite a lot of work went into checking her data (and sometimes correcting and enhancing it) against public sources. These records have been collected in the section on Loveluck Source Records.

Corrections and Additions

Please send any corrections or additions to James Loveluck.