Robert Francis reunion letter

September 2000

The Eardley Millennium Get-Together. The Inside Story

On noon Saturday July 15th, 2000, a remarkable event took place in Audley, North Staffordshire, England. Once dubbed an out of the way place by a local author - it found itself playing host to more than a thousand of its ancestral sons and daughters drawn from twelve countries spanning five continents. Students of Linguistics, History, Sociology and Genealogy would have had what is commonly known as a 'field day' interacting with the visitors - for not only could each one trace his or her roots back to Audley - each carried the same surname - Eardley and shared a common gene pool. The story behind the story which induced Eardleys from the far flung reaches of the English speaking world to return to their roots is worth telling. At the center of it all is a remarkable man - grandson of a Smallthorne miner - forced to leave these shores on the S.S. Lord Gough in June 1887 bound from Liverpool to Philadelphia. Elijah Eardley, his wife Annie and their three children, George, Elizabeth and Ada left England behind to seek a better life in America. More than one hundred years later his grandson would be drawn, like hundreds of thousands of others of British lineage, to seek his roots - to determine in a wider sense who he is and where he came from. That man is a retired medical doctor and former Chief of Psychiatry for the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons - Dr. Robert Jack Eardley, who over the past few years has become something of a local celebrity related to this family interest.

It was novelist Virginia Woolf who made the point in 'To the Lighthouse, that it was the journey, not 'the arriving' which was the 'stuff' of existence. She may well have had a point. July 15th was indeed a remarkable day - but the five fascinating years which led to it were for me personally - (and I suspect for hundreds of others yet to tell their stories) - even more remarkable and fascinating. November 1995 found me at something of a loose end. Early retired and not in the best of health due to diabetes and glaucoma - I certainly needed a new interest. Jack later claimed that, when he first met me I had 'one foot in the grave'. He may have been right - but from that day to this, the cemeteries visited have been as a genealogist rather than as a 'customer'. The brief letter from America which popped through my door was to lead to long letters posted to every known Eardley on the planet and eventually to the remarkable 'friendly invasion' of Audley on the 15th July, 2000. I have mislaid the original letter from Jack but in essence it read something like this:

Dear Eardley Family Member,

My grandparents Elijah Eardley, born 1853 and Annie Hilditch Eardley, born 1854, were from Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent, England. They came to Ohio in the 1880s with three children. My father Frederick, the fourth child was born in America. My great-grandfather Henry Eardley married Elizabeth Kirkham. Can anyone suggest how I can find out more about my family?

Sincerely,

Robert Jack Eardley

Having no further information my imagination filled in the spaces. His grandfather, born in 1853, that's almost 150 years ago - he must be almost 100 years old. I pictured the old doctor sitting on his porch staring into the mists of time - his last wish being to reconnect with his English roots. It must be something members of the so called 'caring professions' share - this compulsion to help those in need. Whatever it was seems irrelevant now. That same day I faxed the 'old doctor' offering to help in any way I could. Two hours later the phone rang. A transatlantic voice spoke. This voice however was not that of a dying man. It sounded vigorous, positive and very determined. Nor was he in a hurry to get off the phone. An hour later (maybe two) swept along by our enthusiasm, we had plans to discover not only our own family connection - but also to unearth the location, and interrelationships of every Eardley Family in the whole wide world. Jack had a theory based on 'common sense' which has since turned out to be correct. It was simply this- that all Eardleys in the world must be related. As our research developed we calculated that there were around 2500 families scattered throughout the English Speaking World. At least one 'Erdele' lived in Audley at the time of Edward I. Local historian Robert Mayer has carried out extensive research on the issue. Parrots' hand written book about Audley refers to around six families during a specific period of the Seventeenth Century. By 1837 the year of official government records began - there were, we counted, around twenty Eardley families. The 1881 census shows around 100 - now a little more than a century later this staggering increase by a factor of 25. Jack located Eardleys with remarkable ingenuity and determination. Telephone books worldwide were scoured - list brokers contacted - genealogical societies lists - passenger lists of boats taking out immigrants were scanned. He never missed an opportunity to appear on BBC Radio Stoke to tell his message. The list grew and grew and although we still have new Eardleys being 'discovered', their frequency is low enough to suggest we now have almost reached our target of tracing every Eardley in the world.

Over the past five years eleven letters have been posted to Eardleys in five continents. Over the past year four letters have been published on the website, making it fifteen altogether. We have kept the extended Eardley Family 'up to speed' with the whole story - how it began, why it happened at all - and how it was developing. Not only were we giving out information, we were also seeking whatever source. Jack spent thousands of hours on the telephone (his favorite form of communication!) persuading Eardleys to loan us original letters and documents. Slowly the pieces were coming together. I seemed to be spending more time in libraries and County Record offices than I did at home. Patterns of common ancestry began to emerge. A couple might produce ten children. Half of these would die in infancy leaving one or two to eventually marry and pass on the family name. For the most lasting impression of gazing at thousands of pages of Parish Records is the ghastly incidence of infant mortality. How families survived the emotional turbulence these deaths must have provoked I shall never be able to understand. A glance through the pages of the Parish Records of St. Margaret's Wolstanton for the year 1812 is to well illustrate my point.

Occasionally, a particular marriage would prove to be 'prolific' in the 'success rate' of its offspring. One such Audley marriage was that of Oldcott Eardley and Cicely Riley. This was a second marriage for both parties. Indeed, nature allowed them just one child, Daniel. Whether by luck, absence of disease - or a fortuitous genetic compatibility - Daniel seems to be responsible for a high proportion of Eardleys today - of whom I am one. My sister was at school with a Margaret Eardley (Beaumont). I remember asking then whether we could be related. No was the answer at the time. Now, we have discovered that they were both descended from Oldcott's Daniel born back - the mid Eighteenth Century. Every step we took confirmed Jack's theory that we were all related.

Armed now with this compelling hypothesis we threw ourselves anew into our project. Linking up the relatively few 'successful' marriages from Parish Records proved to be difficult but not impossible and we concluded that the probabilities were so highly loaded in favor of Jack's proposition as to be virtually irrefutable. The 1881 Census, painstakingly reproduced by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints made everyone's task easier. It was set out by their researchers by Surname. It is thanks to them that we were finally convinced that the worldwide extended Eardley Family (apart from the very few who left the area prior to that date) must have passed through the 'filter' of Eardleys recorded in that Census. The truth of this assertion has been proved correct. Families who had left our area earlier than 1881 can be traced on earlier census returns or Parish Records.

One of the most challenging aspects of the project was to convince the Irish Eardleys that they had English roots. Many Eardleys have inherited Type II Diabetes and syndactaly (webbing of the second and third toes) - the former condition being prevalent amongst Eardleys to a factor several times higher than the population at large. In one of the letters a survey was carried out to determine this. I still recall with some amusement the Irish Eardley who wrote on the survey form this terse reply. "Irish - Roman Catholic - No Diabetes!" What she did not then know was that Lord Audley had left and moved lock, stock and barrel to Ireland in the early 1600's and had almost certainly accompanied by his Eardley associates and who had had their 'Hall' on Audley land for centuries. How else could an English surname from the exact center of England find its way to Kilkenny, Galway and Mayo? The Eardleys who left England dropped the d from the name so as not to be recognized as English, spelling the name Early or Earley. Over time I believe we convinced most of them.

It must have been sometime in 1997, following a letter from Julian Eardley with a comment, "what are we doing for the millennium"? that I just happened to mention to Jack that it would be a wonderful idea to invite all the Eardley's in the world to come 'home' to Audley in the summer of the year 2000 - it being the Millennium. One thing I've learned not to do in Jack's presence is to make an impossible suggestion or he is certain to regard it as a challenge - and decide to make your idea become reality. This was a case in point. "great idea" said Jack. "Let's do it". And so it was. Without boring everyone with the details, it was a colossal task. Letter after letter took shape entreating, pleading and persuading Eardleys from every corner of the globe to come to church at 12 o'clock on July 15th, 2000 in Audley, England. Difficult enough, one would think, to persuade people to attend a wedding a couple of miles away on occasion - but to ask people, some of whom had yet to be convinced that they were related, to travel up to 12,000 miles to come to church, sing some hymns, meet some people with the same name was something we approached with some apprehension. We need not have concerned ourselves. From the outset the response was tremendously positive. We posted directions, obtained special deals with local hotels, obtained the cooperation of the clergy and people of Audley, and spread the news of the upcoming event through every form of media we could contact.

Jack formed a Stoke-on-Trent committee to take on some of the nuts and bolts of setting in place the building blocks of the day. How many would come? We had no idea but from the frequency of callers on our telephones and through internet website message board contacts on eardley.org we were able to determine that the Audley visitation would fill the church. We were concerned about the weather - the first two weeks of July having been extremely miserable. However, we prayed and it worked. Would there be enough to do? Yes, we concluded, in addition to talking 'shop' there was a game of cricket to watch, the chance to play golf for 'free' at Wolstanton Country Club, the Wood Lane Carnival to enjoy or for more adventurous visitors a visit to Blore Heath Farm - site of the Wars of the Roses Battle of that name, for a pig roast and demonstration of medieval arms and tactics. Buckingham Palace was informed by Alan and Margaret Eardley Beaumont and the response received was more than standard. BBC T.V. interviewed Jack and other Eardleys, for the Friday evening newscast- whilst the "Daily Mail' and the 'Evening Sentinel' covered the story on the day.

Saturday morning, 15th July, 2000 dawned bright and almost clear. It was the first reasonable weather we had for weeks, a clear sky and a beautiful sunrise. It was divine intervention. Around ten o'clock Audley started to be filled with new and different visitors - all bearing the same surname but speaking with English accents from around the world. They signed in and streamed inside the church until it was packed tight to the extent no standing room was available and there were two to three hundred outside listening by speakers. The choir sang, the Eardley's sang and the clergy preached and everyone listened. Prayers were said - gifts reverently donated and funding to restore the East Window initiated. The service ended with a mass rendition of 'We'll Meet Again' and 'Auld Lang Syne'. It was a perfect day - a wonderful day. Those of us privileged to be there will never forget it. Although we can never repeat the events of 15th July 2000 we could meet again to re-dedicate the window when that project is complete.

My answering that letter back in 1995 led to more significant consequences than any other I can recall in my life. In between the genealogical endeavors - Jack found the time, energy and resources to forge a Blood Link - a Heritage Link between Stoke-on-Trent and his hometown of East Liverpool, Ohio - home to thousands of pottery families who settled there in the Nineteenth Century. Cultural exchanges have taken place which flourish at a personal level. I was honored to become an honorary citizen of this transplanted Staffordshire town - and felt 'right at home' whenever I visited. We attended the celebration party of President Clinton's re-election in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was present with Hiliary, Al Gore and Tipper. Tony Bennett sang and I had the temerity to 'interview' the candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas armed with no more than my tape recorder. The high point of the past five years for me concerns neither Britain nor the U.S.A., but going to Prince Rupert, British Colombia, Canada with Jack where my father grew up and went to school. Thirty miles from Alaska on the Pacific Coast surrounded by forests and mountains - it was every bit as stunningly beautiful as I had been led to believe. I must confess I shed a few tears. At long last I had walked the streets of the small Northern outpost my father had known so well.

At the end of it all what do Jack and I think of Eardley's as a group. Having been in Audley for at least one thousand years there can be few Audley families who do not share our genes. Eardleys do seem to have traveled a great deal and have often had an eye for entrepreneurial situations. There have been some who were respectably famous - a bishop, a Lord Chancellor, Governor of Tasmania and a thrice Governor of Virginia. We have had our warriors too. George Eardley V.C. and General Sir Culling Eardley who served with distinction during the Indian Mutiny. However, it is the ones who live life a little unconventionally who got my attention. Like Albert Eardley of Congleton who took his family to Texas to survey the Pecos Railway in a covered wagon and subsequently founded a dynasty of cattle barons and bankers - and the Eardley who ran a crocodile farm in Northern Australia. He was quite recently filmed on Australian T.V. cleaning the teeth of his young crocs with a toothbrush. My personal favorite is John Henry Eardley - brother of Jack's grandfather Elijah. Soon after arriving in America he left Ohio and looked for work in the mines of Perth, Indiana - a frontier town of 50 saloons - but no churches. Soon disenchanted by exchanging mining life in England for a similar life in America he recruited the toughest miners in the area and welded them into a team of bare knuckle fighters who would take on 'all comers'. It must have been profitable because we next hear of John owning a string of racehorses. Not bad for a lad from Smallthorne.

The past five years have been packed with interest. I would not have missed them. However, I must give recognition to Robert Jack Eardley whose will and ability to succeed in whatever he undertakes drove this whole project to its ultimate success. Should you ever receive a letter from a complete stranger who bears your name Eardley - open it! It may be a luckier day than you imagined. It was for me.

God Bless You

Robert Francis Eardley