Grannie Alice Dean

Written on the reverse: Grannie, Peggy, Jack & Brian

I began to look closely at faces in the photographs, in an effort to make sense of the information I was gathering. The lovely old photograph above has ‘Grannie, Peggy, Jack & Brian’ written on the reverse. Useful, but who exactly are they? Luckily, this particular Grannie appears in several other photographs too, and the man next to her in the image below shares a strong likeness with John Lovekin b1859:

Unnamed photograph of ‘Grannie’, plus close up of the man & scan of John Lovekin from a named newspaper article

Could this Grannie be Alice Dean, wife of John Lovekin? If so, she was born 1865 in Sheriffhales, Shropshire, and is present (with her husband) on the 1939 census in nearby Shifnal.

Among the documents in this collection is a newspaper clipping for the funeral of Mr Alfred Tucker, dated July 1939. Alfred was the husband of Alice Dean’s eldest daughter, Annie, and the names ‘Peggy Tucker (daughter)’ and ‘Jack and Brian’ are mentioned in his obituary. These are the names on the original photograph. Going back to the family tree, the grandchildren of Alice Dean that best fit these names are shown below. Note that ‘Peggy’ is often used as the diminutive of the name Margaret, ‘Jack’ the diminutive of John, and I am willing to bet that the initial ‘B’ in William B. Lovekin’s name stands for ‘Brian’!

Therefore the photograph at the top of this post dates from around 1933 to 1934, with Alice Dean nearly 60 years old when it was taken.

A further interesting photograph is the one below, described on the back as ‘4 generations, 1923’. The woman on the left is almost certainly a younger Alice Dean, and I initially assumed the older woman to be her mother, Margaret Evans, born around 1828. However there is a death record for a ‘Margaret Dean’ in 1922, registered in Shifnal, Shropshire. Perhaps I have the wrong death, or perhaps the date on the photograph is wrong? In my eyes at least, Alice and the older woman share a likeness. Further investigation is required!

Written on the reverse: 4 generations, 1923

The younger woman is possibly Annie Lovekin, with her daughter Peggy (Margaret Lucy Tucker). I think it is a charming image, and I can’t help but wonder who the woman in the background is?

Lastly, here is a later image of Alice Dean with an (as yet) unidentified woman:

I would hazard a guess that it was taken in the mid 1950s, with Alice in her 80s at the time. The window on the left is the same style as that in the photograph taken with husband John Lovekin, and it may also be the same house in the ‘4 generation’ photograph. John and Alice lived at Crackley Bank, Shifnal and from the few images I have seen and shared here, it appears to have been a very happy home indeed.