Preece Family Tree

Ellen's parents are not known for certain. The census records show her as the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Cowburn, but her birth record has no mother's maiden name, meaning that she was an illegitimate child. An 1850 birth would also be a late (but not impossible) birth for Elizabeth.

Two Ancestry.com family trees (by Dykelj and Dandykirkham) assert without sources that the parents were James Livesey and Alice Cowburn. It's unlikely that there would be any evidence to back up the father of an illegitimate child, but it's a reasonable assumption that they have concluded this based on a birth certificate, which would show the mother's name.

Therefore conclude with low certainty that the mother was Alice Cowburn and the father is unknown. This is certainly not any more wrong than the alternative conclusion that the parents were Thomas and Elizabeth.