Ayer Name Study

Profile managers: Stu Ward [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

About the Project

The Ayer Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Ayer name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Ayer name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Ayers), by time period (18th Century Ayers), or by topic (Ayer DNA, Ayer Occupations, Ayer Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Ayer Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Stu Ward for assistance.

... ... ... is a member of the Ayer Name Study Project.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

• Add one_name_studies to your list of followed tags. That way you'll see all one name study discussions in your G2G Feed.
• Add Ayer to your list of followed tags. That way you'll see all the Ayer Name Study - specific discussions in your G2G Feed.
• Add the category Ayer_Name_Study_Team to your own profile by copying the following code and pasting it into the Biography section of your own profile - this will put a link to your name on our Study Team category page as an aid to collaboration among members.

[[Category:Ayer_Name_Study_Team]]

• Scroll down to the Maintenance Tasks section of the Ayer Name Study Members List, and feel free to contribute to making progress on any one or more of these tasks.
• Post your problems, challenges, and progress in the G2G forum using the ayer_name_study tag and any other relevant tags

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

• Origins of the Ayer Name
• Ayer Immigrants to North America
• Notable Ayers
• Ayer Military and Service Casualties
• Placed Named Ayer

Membership

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Ayers
• Ayres

Ayer Name Study Project

Study G2G Tag: Ayer_Name_Study

Study Team: Ayer_Name_Study_Team

Study Members Page: Ayer Name Study Members

Study Tasks: Ayer Name Study Tasks

Study Profile Sources: Study Profile Sources

The Goals of this study are to:

• collect together in one place everything about the surname Ayer and its many variants, thereby providing a consolidated resource (or at least an index to such resources) for those researching these family lines.
• provide a common focal point for comparing and recognizing duplicate records, where spelling variations have confused identification, and merge them to create one record per person.
• identify active researchers for family lines with the Ayer surname or one of its variants, enabling more informed collaboration.
• resolve family lines where historical researchers have confused relationships.
• connect all WikiTree profiles with an Ayer surname or one of its variants to the one family tree.
• add sources to all profiles on WikiTree with an Ayer surname or one of its variants; and similarly improve the quality of sourcing wherever possible.
• cleanup the biographies, writing clean narratives, and eliminating GEDCOM clutter from all profiles with an Ayer surname or one of its variants.
• share stories to enrich our common heritage.

The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect.

Profile Categorization

As you encounter profiles with the surname, Ayer, Ayers, Ayre, Ayres, Eyer, or one of the many other variations, please add the Ayer Name Study Category to the ancestral profile.

To do this, copy and paste the following Ayer Name Study Template into the profile at the top of the biography section. This action will categorize the profile as belonging to the Ayer Name Study as shown at the top of this page.

{{One Name Study

| name = Ayer

}}

In the event that the profile is included in multiple projects (such as the Pilgrim Great Migration Project for early immigrants, for example, or others) you should just categorize the profile for the Ayer Name Study without the graphic. To do this, simple copy and paste the following code into the top of the biography section of the profile in question.

[[Category:Ayer_Name_Study]]

Other Maintenance Categories may also be appropriate, such as needing a Source, or GEDCOM cleanup as appropriate. The recommended subcategories to use so we can create our project to do lists are shown on the Ayer Name Study Members List,

DNA Resources

DNA testing can improve the accuracy of the genealogical research results in some cases. To get started, first check out DNA Testing For Genealogy 101. How DNA test results can be useful on WikiTree is reviewed at WikiTree And DNA. A full list of resources for available testing and interpreting the results is available on the WikiTree DNA Project Page. WikiTree DNA features are reviewed and explained at WikiTree DNA Features

Key to interpreting the results is comparing to others who have taken the appropriate test(s). Those profiles with Ayer (or some variant) surnames for which some DNA information is available can be found at the following links:

• Aers DNA Connections
• Air DNA Connections
• Aire DNA Connections
• Aires DNA Connections
• Ares DNA Connections

• Aries DNA Connections
• Ayars DNA Connections
• Ayer DNA Connections
• Ayers DNA Connections
• Ayr DNA Connections

• Ayre DNA Connections
• Ayres DNA Connections
• Ayris DNA Connections
• Eairs DNA Connections
• Eayers DNA Connections

• Eayre DNA Connections
• Eyer DNA Connections
• Eyers DNA Connections
• Eyre DNA Connections
• Eyres DNA Connections

• Heires DNA Connections
• Heirs DNA Connections
• LeEyre DNA Connections
• LeHeyr DNA Connections

An Ayer By Any Other Name

The Ayer surname has a great many variations occurring in the records. John Kimball Graves reported finding as many as 53 variations in his research in New England records. ^[1] These variations include: Aaire, Aars, Aers, Ahheayrs, Ahheire, Aier, Aiere, Aiers, Air, Aire, Aires, Airs, Ares, Aries, Aris, Ayar, Ayars, Aye, Ayeres, Ayer, Ayers, Ayhaire, Ayr, Ayre, Ayres, Ayris, Ayrs, Eaire, Eairs, Eare, Eares, Eayer, Eayers, Eayr, Eayre, Eier, Eires, Eyer, Eyers, Eyr, Eyre, Eyres, Eyrs, Hairs, Hares, Hayers, Heires, Heirs, Layre, Le Eir, Le Eyr, LeEyre, LeHeyr, Le Heyer and in some rare cases Oyer, where it has clearly been used as a variant of one of the other above variants.

There are three other known variations that have not been included in this One Name Study:

• Oyer - This is generally a separate surname thought to derive from a place name, perhaps Pont Doylly of Duilly in Normandy. Alternate versions of Oyler and Ollier may have derived from the English occupational name for an extractor or seller of oil. ^[2] Other spelling variations of this family name include: Doyley, D'Oyley, Doyle, Doylee, Doley, Duley, Duly, Duely, Dueley, Ollie, Oyler, D'Oyly, Oiley, Oulley, Oulley, Oullie, Ollie, Owley, Oyly, Oiley, L'Oyle and many others.
• Iyer - Iyer (also spelled as Ayyar, Aiyar, Ayer or Aiyer) of India is a caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara. The majority reside in Tamil Nadu, India. Iyers are sub-divided into various sub-sects based on cultural and regional differences. Like all Brahmins, they are also classified based on their gotra, or patrilineal descent, and the Veda they follow. ^[3]
• Hare - Often recorded as Hare, Hair, and the much rarer Hares, this Anglo-Scottish and sometimes Irish surname has a number of possible origins. The most likely is as a derivation from the Olde English pre 7th Century word, "hara", meaning a hare, and hence a medieval nickname either for a fast runner, or given the robust humor of the Chaucerian period, the complete opposite! The name can also be topographical from the Olde English word "haer", meaning stony ground, and as such described somebody who lived at such a place. It can also be a development from the Irish (Gaelic) name "O' hAichir", the modern O'Hare meaning the descendant of "Aichear", a personal name translating as sharp or fierce. ^[4]

Sources

As you discover sources that might have use in researching multiple family groups, you are encouraged to add them to our Study Profile Sources page to aid other researchers. You should also make free-space profiles for important sources and categorize them as sources, and tag them with key surnames, such as has been done for The History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America. In addition a link should also be added to the appropriate Source Category Summary page, such as Sources-Family_Genealogies. Every profile linked in this way to a given source free space profile will be discoverable as seen here for the Tremain source What Links Here - Treman.

General

• Behind The Name
• Eyre History - A One-Name Study
• Guild of One Name Studies
• Links2History Guide to Name Meanings
• Hornbeck's Naming Practices
• Rootsweb Guide To Names
• The Surname Society
• ZeeMap Data Mapping Site
• WikiTree Categorized Sources

Source & Style Guides

• Great Migration Approved Sources
• WikiTree Biography Style Guide
• WikiTree Categorization Guide
• WikiTree Source Style Guide

Profile Sources

Sources that Ayer Name Study researchers have found useful for documenting details for the various profiles in our family tree(s) are listed and linked on the page below:

Study Profile Sources: Study Profile Sources