October 1996
Almost one year ago I wrote to every known Eardley family in the world -- some 1,500 of you! As a second generation American I wanted to know more about how my family came to be in the U.S.A., where my ancestors came from, and what prompted them to abandon their homeland and travel 5,000 miles to a new land, not knowing what to expect. I also wanted to travel back in time to discover something of the Eardleys who were left behind in England and to try to construct a 'big picture' of Eardleys worldwide.
I knew this would be an overwhelming task and would only be possible if I could get help from other Eardleys. My thinking was something like this. If there are only 1,500 families in the world we must all be related. In order to determine this I needed documentary evidence from census and parish records, and equally important, I needed Eardleys everywhere to send me anecdotes and family trees -- half forgotten memories of 'characters' and even the odd skeleton in the cupboard. I was not to be disappointed.
To say the results were astonishing is something of an understatement. Hundreds of you responded. I received letters, faxes, E-mails, and telephone calls. Many of you sent photographs and family trees. One of you even sent a brass rubbing of an Eardley Coat of Arms! I cannot thank you enough. The response has enabled me to begin to piece together an enormously complex human jigsaw puzzle. I am so pleased with the response that I shall continue to put it
together. I am retired and have the time.
We all like to leave something for our children and grandchildren. My interest is to help my grandchildren -- John, Katherine, and David -- understand their background and heritage before the picture becomes too cloudy to unravel. So just let us say that I did it for our grandchildren -- yours and mine. I am now 66 years old -- an age when a person begins to consider time to be a precious commodity. Some of you may know exactly what I mean. Last year I decided that if our family story was going to be pieced together, it had to start immediately.
I decided to begin by discovering as much as I could about my own Eardley branch of the tree. The letters you received last year began that process. Hundreds of you responded and all of your information has been filed. It does help make the 'big picture' become even more complete. However, I was still no nearer to tracing my own roots until I was lucky enough to meet Robert Francis Eardley. By using local sources of many kinds he has pieced my Eardley family together and constructed a family tree for me, a copy of which is enclosed in this letter. You may wish to look at it carefully in order to see if you can attach your own Eardley family to it. As you can see, my family is all descended from James and Amy Eardley. As yet we don't know where they were born or even where they were married, but their children were born in various parts of the Smallthorne area of Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, England. James and Amy are buried at the
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Saint Bartholomew churchyard in Norton. They left many descendants and it seems almost certain that all the Smallthorne, Burslem, and Tunstall Eardleys are related and descended from them. So I am making a special appeal to Eardleys who know they have a connection in those areas to ask questions about their ancestors.
There are over 500 Eardley families in America -- most of them are descended from just a few Eardleys who came over in the second half of the last century. Many of these are closely related and know it. Others have no knowledge of their family connections -- yet.
For example, the numerous Utah Eardleys are related. They are descendants of Stoke-On-Trent brothers who became Mormons. Theirs is a great story, as is the one told by the Eardleys of Carizzo Springs, Texas. Their ancestors came from Congleton -- just outside of Stoke-On-Trent. They helped to build railroads, they ran cattle ranches, they founded banks and were heavily involved in the local firefighting services.
Eardleys who came to America from outside of Stoke were usually first generation 'exiles' from Stoke-On-Trent. If you scratch the surface of a London Eardley you find in almost every case that they originate within fifteen miles of that great pottery city.
The same holds true of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Eardleys. We also have Eardleys in Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, and yes -- even Hong Kong!
As yet, I have not been able to solve the riddle of the Irish and Scottish Eardleys. I do have a couple of theories which I can share with you. The first one is the story of many 'Eardleys' who were really 'Earleys' and many 'Earleys' who should be 'Eardleys.' When people came to America the officials often made spelling mistakes when filling in the immigration documents. In most cases the immigrant put matters right himself -- when he learned to read and write. On one document my own grandfather's name was misspelled 'Earley'--but eventually everything was corrected to 'Eardley."
The Irish Eardleys may well be genuine -- we just don't know for certain yet. In the Middle Ages, the Lords of Audley -- an important noble family for many centuries which owned a number of strategic castles on the Welsh border and acted as the King's men to keep the Welsh under control -- may have taken Eardleys with them on campaigns to Ireland and left descendants there in a number of locations. Or they may have been from Scotland and resettled in Ireland by the English, not being allowed to use their Gaelic name. The English called or named them 'Earley' because of their early rising in the morning to tend their herds of sheep.
Let me explain further. In the Thirteenth Century, we find the Eardley families living in the Parish of Audley, which is near the present city of Stoke-On-Trent in North Staffordshire. The Eardleys were related by blood to the Audleys. We know this because each has a Coat of Arms, but a number of crucial features in each are identical. A visit to the ancient parish church in Audley will illustrate the point where both Coat of Arms are on view. Both these families were wealthy and powerful, and the impression one gets is that the Eardleys were the right hand men of the Audleys. Both these families at times failed to produce male heirs and the women married into wealthy families. Eardleys married Yardleys in Warwickshire and for a long time Eardleys and Yardleys became confused. Again a female Eardley married into the Derbyshire family of Wilmot. The noted Eardley-Wilmot family stems from the marriage and has produced Bishops and a governor of Tasmania amongst others.
Even the great Audley family came to an end when the Lord Audley married a daughter of Sir Winston Churchill in 1953. This marriage produced no children -- hence the end of the title.
Eardley Hall -- the seat of the Eardleys for many centuries was demolished about twenty years ago and on the site now stands a modern home. Eardley End, the nearby village had a population of several hundred in the last century. Now it too has given way to 'progress' and alas is now no more. I have been told that not only did the Eardleys live in Eardley End but also in the Miles Green and Pool areas of the Audley parish.
The Industrial Revolution in England in the 1700's was the turning point in the history of the Eardleys. Hard times apparently fell on the once wealthy family members and they moved into the fast growing pottery and mining city of Stoke-On-Trent, where employment opportunities were plentiful. People were mobile and seemed to move rapidly from job to job and hence from place to place. Each of James and Amy's children was born in different parts of the city. A study of local records shows this to be very typical. People did not seem to own their own homes--but moved from one rented home to another. In 1881, my own grandfather Elijah Eardley, along with his wife and three children, was living with his father-in-law's family in a rented two up-two down house in Hanley. Elijah had three sisters, Emilia, Annie, and Jane, who married John Brassington in 1876 having two children, Ellen and Elizabeth.
I estimate there could not have been more than a dozen related Eardley families in the Stoke area in 1800. By 1851, this number had grown considerably and the coming of the railways enabled people to move out of the city and settle elsewhere. The industrial belts of Manchester and Birmingham were close by and attracted a number Eardley families. Others went to London and others still started to emigrate to other parts of the English-speaking world -- my grandfather's family being one of them. It is easy to see how we all lost touch. My grandmother told me they left England because they couldn't find work.
Elijah left Stoke-On-Trent in June 1887. He travelled by canal barge to Liverpool and paid the sum of three pounds to travel steerage on the S.S. 'British Prince' bound for Philadelphia. An Edwin Eardley was a Manley travel agent at the time. Did Elijah learn about migration from him -- and were they related? I still have to work on this but I find the whole thing quite fascinating.
My grandfather came to East Liverpool, Ohio -- a 'transplanted potting town,' where by the late 1890's more than half the population was originally from the Stoke-On-Treat area. He found work and sent for his wife Annie Hilditch and their three children three months later. Within a year or two he was actually purchasing his own home which still stands on the Peake Street hillside overlooking the Ohio River. In 1890, a fourth child, Frederick, my father, was born. He married Ethel Crawford, whose mother's maiden name was Sheville. She was descended from Scottish/English heritage. Some of her ancestors had lived near New Castle on Tyne, England. Frederick and Ethel had seven children. Although we are now widely dispersed we keep in touch. The descendant of Elijah and Annie now have spread to Florida, Maryland, California, Kentucky, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Hawaii, and Arkansas while some still remain in Ohio where it all began for us.
I think it is fair to say that America has been good to us -- as it has been for many of the Eardley migrants. Many other destinations of the migrant Eardleys have been equally meaningful. We seem to have penetrated every major area of the economic and social fabric of society whether it be in the U.K. or in the distant Pacific. The professions of medicine and teaching seem especially strong, and in the field of business a strong entrepreneurial streak emerges.
In Indiana an Eardley managed a string of boxers and race horses -- another played with the famous jazz musician Jerry Mulligan. In Australia an Eardley founded a crocodile farm and yet another prospected for oil in China. I have scores of anecdotes charting the wonderful story of migrating Eardleys and their achievements.
In Britain many Eardleys have been associated with the military. At least nine Eardleys fought in Wellington's army at Waterloo in 1815. Others fought in the Boer War in South
Africa -- and a number died in World War I in France and Belgium.
During World War II, a Sgt. Eardley from Congleton (remember the Texas Eardleys) won the Victoria Cross for taking on and destroying three German machine gun posts single-handedly in Holland. His son was recently honored by the Queen of Holland, and I know Roy is very proud of the way his, father is revered by Dutch in that part of their country.
I promised I would share all of this detailed information with any Eardley who responded. I have already sent many such packages of letters to every corner of the world. I would be disappointed if I thought anyone interested had been left out. All you have to do is contact me, no charges involved.
Finally, I am including a questionnaire which I really hope you will take the time to complete. It will help enormously to place Eardleys correctly in this huge and complicated picture. Please give special attention to the question of diabetes in the family. This is a treatable hereditary disease which I know is present in Eardley families. Knowledge of where it is/was present will help us make connections and make the job of completing the 'big picture' a great deal easier.
The year 2000 is now almost upon us. Several have suggested it would be wonderful if we could meet -- and God Willing -- some time during the years of the millennium in order to celebrate our common heritage in a special way. Audley, with its powerful associations with our family, has been suggested as the natural location. A number of you have shown great interest in the idea. One Eardley has already contacted the Vicar of Audley with a view of enlisting his support. What do you think?
If you would prefer to use a local contact in England, please get in touch with Robert Francis Eardley, who is willing to act as both contact and courier for letters and messages. Robert Francis Eardley, also retired and having a high interest in genealogy, has volunteered to help put the Eardley family tree together. Robert Francis Eardley has made the connection for me of living descendants, blood related to an Eardley family in Blackpool, England. He has also made some very important Eardley contacts in Preston and Stoke-On-Trent.
His address is:
Robert Francis Eardley
140, Princes Road
Hartshill
Stoke-On-Treat, Staffordshire
England, ST4 7JL
Telephone/FAX UK 01782 844 253
USA 011 44 1782 844 253
We have come a long way in one year. Your help and encouragement has been excellent and I value it more than you could ever know. If you could please complete the questionnaire it should fill in many gaps which still exist. Thanks.
You should all have received this long letter before Christmas. I do hope you have found something of interest here.
EARDLEY FAMILY QUESTIONNAIRE
Your Name: __________________________________ Telephone: _______________________
Address: _____________________________________ FAX: ___________________________
On your Eardley side of the family, what is the
1) Full name of your father? ____________________________________________________
His date of birth? ____________________________
His place of birth? ___________________________
2) Full name of your mother? ___________________________________________________
Her date of birth? ___________________________
Her place of birth? __________________________
3) Full name of your grandfather? _______________________________________________
His date of birth? ___________________________
His place of birth? __________________________
4) Full name of your grandmother? ______________________________________________
Her date of birth? ___________________________
Her place of birth? __________________________
5) Full name of your great-grandfather? __________________________________________
His date of birth? ___________________________
His place of birth? __________________________
6) Full name of your great-grandmother? _________________________________________
Her date of birth? __________________________
Her place of birth? _________________________
7) Can you go back further than this? Who is your most distant Eardley ancestor? Give brief details.
8) If you live in Britain but not in North Staffordshire/South Cheshire, when, (if you know), did your family have those areas to live where you are now? Briefly explain.
9) Do you still have relatives in the Stoke general area -- even it you are not in contact with them? Who are they?
10) If you live in a country other than Britain -- when did the first Eardleys arrive and where did they live?
11) Does your Eardley family still live in that area -- or have you now moved on (perhaps several times) in order to be where you live today?
12) In which other locations do you have Eardley relatives?
Please be as thoughtful as you can with this question. It is most important.
13) If you live in Britain, does your Eardley family know that sometime in the past an Eardley left to live permanently in another country? If 'yes,' who were they and where and when did they go?
14) Do you have a family tree -- no matter how incomplete -- which you are willing to provide for our project?
15) Is there DIABETES in your Eardley family? If 'yes,' who is/was that person?
I thank all of you most warmly for your help and cooperation. Answering this questionnaire will help us to complete the most wide-ranging, 'single name study' ever undertaken!
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