Henry Whitlock born 1849

[ainsley-ons]

A little more has come to light on this.  It seems that WHITLOCKs have a strong Dutch contingent of WITLOCs or WITLOXs so it may well be that Thomas married an indigenous WITLOC(X) in Holland and Thomas/Henry and William (and possibly others) were born there.  A Dutch contact tells me that often the "Van" part is separate in Holland, but connected in Belgium, so there may be 2 Low Countries in which to search - and of course we may well have the anglicisied spelling of the Dutch name to contend with as well!

Robert Whitlock (nee Vanhackovens) was my maternal grandfather and spent much of his life in and around Tulse Hill in south London.  Wounded in WW1 he had kept a day-by-day diary of 6 weeks in the trenches (complete with shrapnel hole) - an almost dispassionate record of survival in conditions that are hard to comprehend.  Wounded again later on, he survived the war and died in 1956, having never really recovered from what we now recognise as PTSD.  I only ever met him once but will hopefully publish the diary (once I've managed to interpret the minute handwiting) as a memorial of a man who was "just another piece of cannon-fodder".

[Royfamily]

Thomas whitlock,Roberts brother was my ggrandfather he married Esther Burdett.and their daughter ester mary whitlock my nan married John foreman I sure I have seen a note where Robert got a letter from Thomas when he was in the trenches telling him of his marriage.

[Korowe]

Thomas whitlock,Roberts brother was my ggrandfather he married Esther Burdett.and their daughter ester mary whitlock my nan married John foreman I sure I have seen a note where Robert got a letter from Thomas when he was in the trenches telling him of his marriage.

Oh wow I've been talking to relatives of yours from the same line as Ester Mary Whitlock and also Robert's daughter Dorothy, we connected over DNA matches and have been exchanging emails for some time now.  I'm more than happy to share my research with you and show you the family tree.

 The actual surname for the family is "Ovens". The "Whitlock" name was actually the second Christian name given to Walter, the brother of Thomas and Robert. All three boys were born with the surname Vanhackovens and it is their father Thomas that married my 3 x great aunt Mary Ann Meakins. I then discovered that this Thomas Vanhackovens, was actually baptised as Thomas Van-hack, with the surname Ovens. His parents are James Ovens and Margaret Gray.

If you would like to get in touch just send me a personal message and I can share my email address and link to my Ancestry family tree.

Cheers
Julie

[ainsley-ons]

Julie - while not questioning the actual research I'm still inclined to suspend judgement over what exactly WAS the original name and where ultimately it originated, let alone where the WHITLOCK came into the picture and why the three boys adopted it eventually.  I wonder if there may be some credence to my mother's "family myth" of a Dutch ancestor - although its entirely possible that this was based on her being told that Robert changed his name from Vanhackovens!  There was also a mythical "the Whitlocks came from Hampshire" which I'd forgotten about!

Do you have anything positve to connect Thomas Van-Hack Ovens to Thomas Vanhackovens apart from the obvious?  I hate coincidences - and I absolutely dont believe something just because its in writing so when there's an oddity I look for as much confirming evidence as pssible - have you found anything more to tie this down?

DNA is still likely to be our best bet to sort things out of course - and since I'm a generation behind most everone looking at this and therefore closer to the people we are interested in, I need to do more on my own stuff - including getting an Ancestry test done! 

Its all fascinating, even if it does take me away from my primary research - even though nobody on my side will be interested since I've no offsrping, at least someone will benefit from the knowledge! :-)

[Royfamily]

As this is related to my family,It's hard to understand why Thomas my 2x grandfather and his brothers Walter and Robert,changed their surnames to whitlock,as their father is Henry Whitlock,with all three working in Covent Garden market,also I have found a note saying that Thomas's mother was Mary ann whillock.and they are living in 52great wild street in 1891.
Henry 42
Mary ann 37
Thomas 16
Walter 14
Robert 12. As I am not on any genioligy sites my research is limited.thanks

[Neale1961]

Regarding the origins of the name VANHACKOVENS: To me it looks like a combination of two names.
Vanhack & Ovens.
There are quite a few births, marriages and deaths with the surname VANHACK in London as far back as the 1600s. Also spelling variations VANHECKE and Van HICK. The original (Dutch) name may have been VAN EYK.

 -------

Thomas Vanhack OVENS (the son of James Ovens) married Mary Ann LYNHAM in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire on 9 Nov 1863.
As far as we know Thomas was a sailor, and this would explain the marriage in Newport
Possibly 2 children born to this couple -
Frances Ann OVENS born 1865 Isle of Wight; died 1868 in Bristol age 2 ½
Alfred Ovens 1868 in Clifton (Bristol area).

It might be worth having a look at this marriage record. This might be the mythical Hampshire link that Ainsley-ons mentioned in reply #21

Henry Whitlock (who does not seem to know where he was born) may have been an illegitimate son of Thomas, before he married in 1863.

[Royfamily]

The surname Vanhack is most common in France,if Ovens is the real family name,maybe Vanhack was a female line maiden name,as it was a common practice to keep family names going.

[Royfamily]

Hi all looking at Mary ann lynham date of birth 1838 she would have only been a child when William and Thomas were born in 1844and1849.
If so how would their realmother be found.Also How can the whitlocks and the Vanhackovens be on to different census records at the same time circa 1881? Maybe I am misreading the evidence presented,the Whitlock family web site shows them as being whitlocks seems strange,maybe the person who added them knew.thanks

[Korowe]

I doubt Mary Ann Lynham is the mother of William and Thomas. I’m still searching Baptism records. I have a possibility for William but I need to look further into it.

I’m not sure what you mean by the census records. The Vanhackovens are the right family and there were other Whitlock family’s with similar names. I don’t have all my research to hand at the moment as I’m away on holiday but will follow up on my return home.