Hi everyone! I've found another UK connection in my family, not necessarily Whaley Bridge, but exciting at least for me, all the same. My grandmother was Martha Edith Collier Ayars. She met and married my grandfather, William Newton Ayars in La Marque,
Texas and married him around 1930. Since I kind of hit the old brick wall with the Collier Family with Edward and Francis Collier in the late 1700's, I started looking into the Ayars family and had a LOT more success, although I hardly knew anything at all about them. My grandfather died when I was about 6 years old, and although I have some great memories of him, he didn't talk much about his family, not that my mother remembers, and she never knew or even heard mention of his grandfather.

So, searching on Ancestry.com, I found the old censuses, going back to the first US census in 1790, still stating the subjects were born in the US. I had no idea of the name Ayars or where they originally immigrated from. So, looking online I found other Ancestry.com members researching the Ayars family and found two papers written on the Ayars family with family legends dating back to William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings in 1066. Okay, I know they a just legends, but still it's pretty exciting stuff for me. Apparantly the first Ayars to immigrate was Robert Ayars in 1664, from Gotherington, Gloucestershire, England. He immigrated to Rhode Island, then moved to New Jersey. His 4X great grandson James moved to Wisconsin, then Kansas. James son, Benjamin Franklin Ayars, was my great grandfather, and he moved to Galveston, on the Gulf Coast of Texas between 1870 and 1880, evidenced by the census records. An accounting in one of the papers written in 1912 talks about the author's memories of her grandfather visiting her uncle who had moved to Kansas, which tells me I probably have the correct lineage.

In one of the historical papers, there is legend that this branch of the family may have its origins with a William Le Eyr of Hope, Derbyshire, born sometime prior to 1251, or another Richard Le Heyre, around 1270.

If anyone does know anything more about the Ayars family, I'd be grateful if you would share any stories with me. I find it all fascinating, but apologize if I've bored you all with my particular family research. Anyway, I just thought it might be a good way to keep in touch and share the things I'm finding along the way.

Best wishes and Aloha,
Martha