Louisa was born in Greenhithe in 1835 and Christened on 2nd April.  She is shown on the 1841, aged 6, living with her parents and siblings  Five years later however, when she was 11, her father died at the age of 60.  He left a will directing that she, her mother, her sister Emma and two youngest brothers should be provide for from the proceeds of the continuation of the plumbing business by half-brother Alfred. Louisa's support should have continued until she reached the age of 17, but it would appear that this did not happen as in 1851 she had left home and was working as a servant for John Jackson, a victualler in Greenhithe.

On 25th October 1859 she was one of the witnesses at her sister Emma's wedding and was not yet married as she still had the surname Barham. No record of her marriage has been found, but in 1861 the census records her in Lambeth as the wife of William Edwards, a travelling ironmonger and that they had a newborn daughter, Emily.

There is no further trace of Louisa or her husband after the 1861 census but in 1871 Emily is shown tp be living with her Grandmother and Aunt Elizabeth in Greenhithe. This suggests that she was either orphaned (although there is no trace of her parents’ deaths) or perhaps they had emigrated.