John Lomas born 1854 at Woolscott, Warwickshire

My paternal great-grandfather. There is some confusion about his name. His official birth certificate names him as "Jesse John Lomas", but he was baptised as "John Lomas", and in the 1861 census he was also just "John Lomas". All later documentation also has him as "John Lomas". Probably because in 1857 his younger brother was named "Jesse Lomas".

It is interesting to read my father's notes on how he and my mother discovered what John's real name was, and where he was born. As he said, it took them some 18 months, and some inspired detective work.

He was living at Burton-on-Trent at time of his marriage in 1876, and working as a Breakman (railways). The marriage was at Christ Church, Burton-on-Trent 22 July 1876 to Mary Ann Turner. The family had moved to Derby by the time their eldest son Herbert was born on 6 May 1877 at 34 Hulland St, Derby. Their second son Walter Lomas was born on 7 April 1880 at 66 Clifton St, Litchurch, Derby, and worked as a Railway Guard. Their third son Harry Lomas (my grandfather) was born 13 June 1888 at 26 Barrow St, Derby.

Other addresses include Calvert St (I suspect the order is Hulland St, Clifton St, Calvert St, Barrow St), then 52 Princes St, and finally 82 Pear Tree St, where both myself and my brother Ken were born. I remember my grandfather Harry saying that he had lived 66 years in Pear Tree St when he left it in 1961. This would mean that the family was living there in the late 1890s, when great-grandfather (Jesse) John was still alive.

On John's death certificate, it says he died at 82 Pear Tree St, Derby on 18 April 1909, aged 56 years. Death registered by Mary Ann Lomas nee Turner, widow of John, my great-grandmother.

John Lomas
20 Nov 2021