December, 1997

Dear Eardley Family Member,

This Christmas letter marks the fifth occasion I have enjoyed the privilege of writing to every Eardley address known in the world. Some 3200 families found a home and put down roots in virtually every English-speaking country on the globe! For some of you, this may be the first time you have received a letter. As addresses have become known from other Eardleys, the ongoing research has added to our original list of 1500 names and addresses.

In 1841, we numbered around 55 families - the majority of which lived in the northern part of Staffordshire, England. The rapid expansion of the British Empire and mass migration to the United States enabled the Eardley name to spread worldwide. Our name can be found in such far-flung locations as Perth, Australia, San Antonio, Texas and South Africa. My own painstaking investigations, recently corroborated by University Doctorate Research documents our family name as stemming from a handful of families in the Audley district of North Staffordshire, England. The Hearth Tax Records of 1332 indicate property-owning Eardleys (with hearths) residing at Audley. Clearly our name pre-dates this event, and I fully intend to further pursue our medieval heritage towards its inception. Should any Eardley be of assistance in suggesting how best to achieve this, please contact me. I should be grateful for any additional expertise in this regard. To those of you who always considered your name to be the one you always had to spell for other people - it is pleasing to note that we can trace our ancestors as far back as most prominent British titled families - including the Royal Family! We have certainly lived on a continuous basis in the Stoke area for 665 years - that is two thirds of a Millennium. Now, that's what one would call British Tradition!

At this point, I would urgently draw to the attention of every Eardley in the world the following most important announcement. In response to numerous suggestions as to how best we can mark the year 2000 for our family in a unique and meaningful way, after discussion with Rev. Davies and Robert Francis Eardley, it was decided to hold an Eardley Millennium 'Get Together' on Saturday, July 15th in the year 2000, commencing at noon, at St. James' Church in Audley, Staffordshire, England. This church holds a unique place in our corporate heritage. This is for us where it all began. Our common distant ancestors were all baptized, married and buried in or from this church. If there is one spot on this earth where we can all find a spiritual home - it is there before the altar of St. James, Audley. Rev. Davies has graciously agreed to have our extended family make use of the church and its environs as part of our special family 'get-together.' Every Eardley is welcomed. Bring your 'family tree' with you. A special address is being given by the Vicar.

I would again make you all aware that although I have in my possession some 3500 pages of information from Eardleys worldwide and am currently in contact with some 500 Eardley individuals, I am a 'one person operation.' A number of you have been particularly helpful. Without you, the picture would not have been remotely possible. Thank you all so much.

In the United Kingdom, Robert Francis Eardley, 140, Princes Road, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England ST4-7JL - Tel/Fax 01782-844253 - continues to be involved in helping piece this Eardley family tree together. Please contact him at home any time with any queries or information you may wish to share. Please be aware that we are engaged in a huge endeavor. If we sometimes respond to your inquiries a little less quickly than would be ideal, it is due to the volume of work we have - not to a lack of interest in your query. Having no secretary, I find it more effective to telephone each and every one of you. This way I make personal contact. I have spoken to many of you already. I would like to extend this network still further, so again I would ask you to remember to include your full telephone number, so I can call you. Should I make an occasional mistake or send the same letter twice, I trust you will forgive me. I believe this to be the most extensive single-name study ever undertaken - although, of course, should anyone provide information to the contrary, I am always persuadable.

For your information, a new Family History Centre is now operating in London, just a few minutes walk from the Angel tube station. Certificates of births, marriages and deaths of your Eardley ancestors may be obtained from 1837 to the present day. Each certificate is reasonably priced at 6 pounds and is posted to you within four working days However, you need to make a personal visit and fill in the details of the person about whom you are inquiring on the forms provided.

In Stafford, England, I was personally able to document the deaths of 206 Eardleys from their microfiche records from 1837 - 1850. Almost all of us are descended from or are related to one or more of these individuals. It is on these names that the current focus of my work is concentrated. Not surprisingly most of them lived and died in Staffordshire, England.

The names of Yardley and Eardley have been interchangeable in the past. My family tree can be traced to James Yardley 1762 - 1816 and Amy Gater 1762 - 1832. They had seven children: Daniel b. 1787, John b. 1788, Elijah b. 1790, married Hannah Kelshaw b. 1790, from which I am descended: James b. 1792, Paul b. 1794, Enoch b. 1797, Mary b. 1798. Does anyone of you come from this line? Just recently an interesting piece of information came to light regarding my own great-grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth Kirkham Eardley. I had always believed they had lived and died in Burslem, England. However, to my surprise, I discovered that in their later years, they, too, migrated to East Liverpool, Ohio - probably to be taken care of by my great-uncle John and/or my grandparents Elijah and Annie Eardley, who left Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in 1887. In October this year, our family in America had headstones placed on their graves to commemorate their last resting place and to indicate for future generations of Eardleys the fact that they were originally English and joined the flood of migrants to America in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.

Now, may I suggest one look up surnames which your Eardley relatives married into in the past. Would it be possible for you to let me have the other surnames in our family so that possible connections may be made? My own include the surnames Gater, Ralphs, Colclough, Baddeley, Kirkham, Sawyer, Brassington, Kelshaw, Nixon, Jeffries, Copeland and Hilditch - all good Stoke names! To date, I can trace with 'proof' my own family tree to 1762, to James and Amy Gater, of Norton-in-the-Moors, near Stoke. I can go back much further speculatively - but I need to 'prove' the relationships within accepted 'genealogical good practice.'

The oldest living member of my family is 97 years old, Ruth Eardley Cramer - daughter of George - first born son of my grandparents, Elijah and Annie. Ruth, his daughter, lives on in East Liverpool Nentwich Nursing Home. She remains mentally alert and has vivid memories of her childhood when East Liverpool was awash with people from Stoke-on-Trent, England and when Sunday morning breakfast consisted of oatcakes with cheese following a convivial Saturday evening over a "pint of ale at the 'pub.'" George attended Silverdale Board School near Stoke shortly before being taken to America. We have a record from his school indicating that Queen Victoria's school inspector regarded him as a good student. He died tragically at the age of 26 from Typhoid Fever in East Liverpool, and his obituary lists him as one of the most popular young men in town - one who would have made his mark in life had he lived.

Next year marks the bicentennial of the founding of East Liverpool. Following the ceremony, it is my current intention to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C., so that I can examine the boat lists of British immigrants, so that connections can be made amongst these Eardley families who came to the United States. I believe, based on the evidence I have uncovered thus far - that they traveled to America on the Liverpool to Philadelphia route.

At this point I should pay tribute to John Abberley - the well-known journalist for the "Staffordshire Sentinel" whose interest in local history helped us spread the news of our genealogical quest to 'Sentinel' readers. John was sufficiently interested in the East Liverpool saga to make a personal visit earlier this year. He was able to see and experience life in this remarkable community of 'Ex-Potters' who now live thousands of miles from their roots in Staffordshire - but who are still vividly aware of their cultural heritage.

Even more recently, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Stoke-on-Trent, Councillor Doug Brown and Joyce Brown together with their granddaughter Jemma Corbett, visited East Liverpool and were thrilled and moved by the experience. Doug christened it Stoke's Seventh Town - the one novelist, Arnold Bennett, completely overlooked. The Lord Mayor has expressed a personal wish that a way be found to cement the relationship in some formal manner. In addition, he has welcomed the proposed Millennium Eardley 'Get Together' as being a significant cultural event and will help and assist in an appropriate manner any way that he can. Incidentally an offshoot of the East Liverpool Potter connection is that a party of Stoke descendants from there, sponsored by the East Liverpool AAA Motor Club and Radio Station WOHI, are planning a trip to Stoke in April, 1998, to 'find their roots.'

We still continue to receive letters from Eardleys worldwide, who display symptoms of "Late Onset Diabetes" (fortunately easily treatable these days) and "Syndactly" - a partial joining of the skin between the second and third toes. Both conditions are hereditary and help prove genetic connections between members of our family. The British Diabetic Association has expressed an interest in this - especially as it appears that our diabetes is continuing to be passed on quite significantly through the male line and is not apparently showing any sign of 'breeding out.' A James Marples of Rose Hill, Kansas, U.S.A. - of English extraction - is currently undertaking a study of Syndactly. I am in contact with him and actively pursuing an investigation to determine the likelihood of our two families being related.

Our family motto is "Not for Ourselves Alone." Our family "Coat of Arms" includes the "Cheshire Sheaf" - as does that of near neighbors, the Lords of Audley. We can presently only speculate as to the relationship between the two families. Since Audley is in Staffordshire, perhaps someone could help solve the mystery of why a Staffordshire family should include a Cheshire based heraldic symbol. Was Audley once a part of Cheshire or is there another explanation?

Did you know that some Eardleys claim to have "red" or auburn hair in their family? If you can lay claim to this tendency in your family, please let me know. It may help put us together.

A number of Eardley families told me that their ancestors were believed to have been Crusaders who fought with Richard the Lion Heart and brought Saracen slaves to the Biddulph area of Staffordshire, England. I personally researched some of the history of the North Staffordshire Regiment, and discovered to my surprise that they fought against the Colonists in the "American War of Independence" or "Revolutionary War." They were stationed at Staten Island, Camp New York and Boston. There was an Eardley who went "absent without leave" a couple of times. They always took him back. Either he was a good soldier whenever he had to be - or he couldn't decide which side to support. We shall never know.

Major Charles Wilmot Eardley, M.C. was able to trace his ancestors to one of the original Eardley families of Audley, when by chance, information in one of your letters enabled him to "slot into" a family tree which took him back 200 years further than 30 years of research had been able to achieve. This demonstrates how valuable your sharing of information has been in the past and will continue to be in the future.

Edward Eardley, Master of Eardley Hall, an imposing structure which lasted until the 1970's - was the Justice of the Peace in the Audley district during part of the 1600's. At that time, there was no King. Charles I had been beheaded and Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector. Edward had the distinction of being one of the few men in British history to sign documents in the "Republic of England!"

When he was a child, Robert Francis' next door neighbors were Eardleys. He remembers a "little girl" who visited there occasionally to see her grandmother. That was many years ago. However, our ongoing Eardley quest has brought them into contact again. The "little girl" now married and living in Wrexham, North Wales, is one of our most valued sharers of information. Many of you tell me of "strange coincidences" which you say occur when you work on discovering your ancestors. The stories you relate have echoes of "Tales of the Unexpected." If you, too, have a "strange tale" to relate, then please write it down as part of your next letter to me.

In London, there is a tavern called the "Lord Eardley." In North Staffordshire, there has not only been an Eardley Hall, but also a village called Eardley End. In the last century, there was an Eardley Row in Smallthorne. Today there is an Eardley St. in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent and in Monterey, California. There is an Eardley, Canada.

In the last century, there was an Eardley cattle ranch in Texas, which, of course, had its own brand. The owner was originally from Congleton, near Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Centuries ago, an Eardley lady married the Moreton of Moreton Hall - arguably the most famous Elizabethan structure in South Cheshire. Today, it is visited by tens of thousands of tourists and is owned by the National Trust.

I would also bring to your attention the fact that a book documenting the wartime exploits of our most decorated family member, George Eardley V.C., has recently been published. It makes a fascinating read and was written by his son, Roy, who still lives in the Congleton area of Cheshire - not far from Stoke.

Another literary Eardley is Michael J., of Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, who has written a historical novel about the most famous Lord Audley, James, friend of the Black Prince and hero of the Battle of Poitiers, one of the major encounters during the 'Hundred Years War' between England and France. Michael believes the novel lends itself to a successful movie script on the scale of 'Braveheart' - but this time portraying the English as the 'good guys!'

There was an excellent response to our last letter which mainly gave guidance and instruction on how to pursue your family tree starting from scratch. I was so pleased that so many of you took advantage of this opportunity. I am still totally convinced that all the Eardleys in the world are related. Small scale movements before the Industrial Revolution were translated into very rapid dissemination of our families through the canal and railway network - followed by the mass migration to the English-speaking world.

Finally, please allow me to thank you for your tremendous support. Without you, none of this could have happened. Again, thank you for your letters, Christmas cards, faxes, e-mails and telephone calls. Do be assured I will call you if I have your telephone number. Telephone contact is so much more meaningful since I find it difficult to write everyone individually. If I have not already received a copy of your family tree - whether it be of long-standing or newly researched - would it be possible for you to forward a copy? To all those who in the past have been kind enough to share your family tree with me - I am sure you will be pleased to know that they play a constant and vital part in my research. I feel I know through them each and every one of you. Many connections between Eardley families continue to be made from my knowing how the family patterns have developed. Eventually all connections will be made known to you. It all just takes time and effort. I thought you might like to know that your family tree is very valuable to me in the ongoing quest.

The Mormon church offers considerable information through their extensive records, but this source material has not always been meaningful to the Eardley family in general.

To all those Eardleys from the Irish Republic - as I explained in a previous letter, Eardleys from Audley followed Lord Audley to a new home in Ireland in the early 1600's where he became the Earl of Castlehaven. He led the Irish army against the invading Oliver Cromwell. So, we can say with some confidence that Irish Eardleys can be reassured as to their patriotism, because no doubt your ancestors helped defend their country, though they had at least some English blood and a very English name. History throws up some interesting and unexpected facts.

Finally, may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Productive Genealogical New Year! Please remember to include your phone number in any communication. Plan to keep a clear diary for Saturday, July 15th, in the year 2000. This should be quite an event - a 'one off' and one about which you can 'camcord' or photograph for distant posterity and for your children and grandchildren.

I shall, of course, contact you again in 1998. Until then - God Bless you all.

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