Letter from Jim Eardley

Dear Fellow Eardley,

Many thanks for your reply to my email about my great uncle Fred. I have recently returned from visiting my brother
(Warren Arthur Eardley) in Houston. He gave me several items about the Eardley family, including some fascinating
letters from Fred, written when he was stationed in France and Luxemborg during WWI. I thought that his family might
like copies of these letters and hence my interest in trying to trace them.

Warren has communicated with you with details about what might be called the WAE line of the Eardleys, the eldest son
carrying the initials of WAE. Warren's son is Walter Arthur Eardley (b. 30 April, 1985, Houston), and his grandsons
are Weston Anthony Eardley (b. 29 December 1993, Houston) and Jared Davis Eardley (b. 19 April 1996, Houston).
The letter's arrival was one of our reasons for visiting Houston.

We have some details about my grandfather, William Arthur Eardley (b. 1867, Gloucester, d. 1953, Bakersfield,
California), known as Will. He was the grandson of William Eardley and the son of William Eardley (b. 1837,
place unknown, d. 1876, possibly in Middle Granville, New York) and Mary Ann Evans-nee Mary Ann Green-
(b. 1837, place unknown) who were married in Gloucester on 4 November 1865. We have a Bible dedicated
with William Eardley, dated 31 March 1860, Leith, Scotland. Both Will's father and grandfather were slate mason
journeymen. Will was born on 19 May 1867 at Regent Street, Barton St Mary, Gloucester. This information has come
from William Sr.'s marriage certificate and Will's birth certificate. At some stage the family migrated to the US. The
information about the Eardleys in New York and then Illinois which I included in my earlier email was gleaned from two
undated obituaries for Mary Ann Eardley who had remarried George Weaver of Batavia, Illinois on 17 July 1883, 7
years after William Sr.'s death.

I fear that I have little other hard information. Will moved to Los Angeles and later to Bakersfield where he was the
supervisor of the Kern County Land Company's flour mill for many years. My father, Wendell Arthur Eardley was born
on 17 September 1902 in Bakersfield and died in Santa Barbara on 2 January 1974, after working as a petroleum engineer
for Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) for over 35 years. He married Doria Minna Ramm (b. 9 July 1906, San Francisco)
at the Stanford Chapel on 24 June 1926. Their children were Warren Arthur Eardley (b. 31 January 1936) now a pediatrician
in Houston Texas and me, James Paul Eardley (b. 26 April 1939), now a landscape architect in London, England. I married
Ann McGregor Eardley, nee Wallace (b. 3 February 1944) of Glasgow and East Kilbridge, Scotland and had two children,
Alan Arthur Eardley (b. 23 February 1972, London) and Alison Freeland Eardley (b. 23 June 1973, London). Both are currently
college students in the UK.

As to my ignorance about Fred, there was a family rift between Will and my parents and hence I never met him until the
last year of his life. I never knew that I had other Eardley relatives until, during a trip across the United States in 1951 I think
that I met Jennie Eardley (Fred's wife) in Aurora, Illinois (my brother is unable to substantiate this meeting). My guess is that
Fred was born in Middle Granville, New York, but without the date on the obituaries, I am unable to determine when. Can one
tap into the archives for the local papers in either New Granville, New York, or Batavia, Illinois. I am also unclear when the WAE's
migrated to the US. Are there any immigration records available?

Finally have you come across any Eardleys based in or around Aurora, Illinois? I know that at the time of Mary Ann's death
Fred's older sister Florence (Eardley) Brown was living in Aurora with her husband G D Brown and I suspect that Fred
and his younger sister Gertrude may have moved there.

Needless to say with our family spread across the continent, it is not easy to carry out this type of research, but it you have any
advice or information, I would be pleased to hear from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jim Eardley

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