1841 census finds Sturman, at six months the youngest of eight children, living with his parents at 25 East Road in Tower Hamlets, Shoreditch, in the parish of St Leonard. In 1851 they were occupying a house at 2 Church Row, Upper Street, in St Mary's, Islington. By 1861 the family had moved a couple of doors along, to a room in number 4a Church Row, which was fairly crowded with artisan tenants. Sturman was by then aged 20 and a schoolmaster, still unmarried and living with his parents. In 1864 Sturman married Emma Jessup (or Webb) (1846–1918) when he was 23 and she was 18 years old. They had nine children, of whom one died young. By 1871 Sturman was aged 30, still a schoolmaster and married to Emma aged 25, a schoolmistress born in Hackney, Whitechapel, Stepney or Mile End. They had two children aged six and five years, and were living at 145 Packington Street, then a ladies' school, at St Peter's, Islington. By 1881 there were eight children aged two to sixteen, of which the eldest was a civil servant clerk, and Sturman was still schoolmastering, although they had moved out of the school and were living at 68 Upper Tollington Park, Hornsey. They had moved around somewhat, as the three youngest of the children had been born in Penge, Sydenham, and Lee Place in Lewisham. By 1891 the family had two servants, and most of them (less two children) were living at 160 Holland Road, South Kensington. Sturman was now Hon. Secretary of the Society and Emma was Lady Secretary. Their daughter Florence was a dead letter office clerk - a post which might have been useful at a Society which practised a form of pamphleting and received a great deal of returned mail. The other children were all clerks, except the youngest who was an apprentice electrical engineer. In 1899, Sturman died. The 1901 Census finds Emma Sturman as a widow still living with her family at 160 Holland Road. She owned the house, and was selling apartments within it. Her family appears to have been educated, stable and respectably employed. Her youngest son, Douglas, had become an electrical engineer and telephone company worker. Another son was now a civil servant and principal clerk and he had married a woman from Cape Colony. By 1911, Emma at age 65 was still living at Holland