INTRODUCTION
My father Stanley George A’Bear spent many months of his retirement years during the 1980s researching the family tree. He managed to trace information leading right back to the 14th Century, and compiled a wallchart which showed all known living and deceased A'Bears.
In 2001 I first met my sixth cousin (once removed) Mark A'Bear, who had already independently compiled a computer data base of A'Bears based on his own research, aided by internet access to genealogy websites. It was with great interest that we sat down to compare our results, and from our findings any discrepancies were soon analysed and resolved to the best of our abilities. An offshoot of this work was the planning of the A'Bear Family Gathering in May 2002, and through these efforts we learned of the research of David Nash Ford, a more distant relative, whose interest and skills in Genealogy had led him to compile his own version of our family history and tree. His work also proved invaluable, and was quickly taken into account.
One of the biggest problems in tracing our ancestry has always been the family name, John. For centuries the first-born child was given this name, and consequently references to "John A'Bear" are all-too-often ambiguous. However, there is now a fair degree of certainty of our descendancy from around 1600 AD. Before then as one goes back in time it becomes more and more difficult to be certain of facts, as wills, deeds and other records give less comprehensive information.
Our earliest recorded A’Bear in Wargrave was John Attebere, living in 1340 AD. Between then and about 1500 AD little is known, but at some time between these years the name became shortened. It is not known why it changed, but it was around this time that record keeping became more important, and more people began to learn to write. The traditional view is that the name was simply shortened from Attebere, with the 'tte' being replaced by the apostrophe. In the years to come the 'bere' was often recorded incorrectly as 'bear' or 'beare'. Another theory that I have is that maybe with the realisation that Del-aberes and Att-eberes were once the same family, it was decided that they were all "aberes", and the name was respelt accordingly. The Delabere name, however, continued in other regions.Whatever the reason, the new surname was quite prolific by about 1500 AD, so it stands to reason that the family continued to live, work and multiply as yeoman farmers in Wargrave during the intervening period. In 1550 the first known family will of a John A Beyre of the Parish of Wargrave was written. The years of birth of his large family suggest he was born around 1470.
Much later, the family split when, after having three children by his first marriage, John A’Bear (1671 – 1743 ) married a second time following the death of his first wife, and had a further six children. Of his first family, one son continued the family line, and by his second marriage two sons continued the family line, though it seems that the younger of these sons only produced one more generation. Therefore had two of our ancestors not survived long enough to have sons, the name would have died out long ago.
So it is that we all have a latest common ancestor in John A’Bear (1671 – 1743), my great great great great great grandfather. It is the remains of his surviving son by his first marriage that lie buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Wargrave. This is the earliest known A'Bear grave, and his tombstone can still just about be read.
I, myself, descend from the second family, but both branches have proliferated, and A’Bears are now known to be living in several countries of the world.
The tree is large, and has therefore been broken up into time sections:
This Earliest Section begins with John A Beyre (c1470 - 1550) and ends around 1700, at the time of John A'Bear (1671 - 1743) mentioned above, who had two families. The tree is labelled part T (left hand side) and part G (right hand side). These identify two main branches descending from Thomas Abere (c1495 - 1544) and George A Beyre ( c1505 - 1577). These branches are taken separately in the accompanying text. There is also a mis-fits tree of known family groups of A'Bears that cannot (as of yet) be placed.
The second section continues until about 1850 and is split into two main parts - Part A - John's first family and his descendants, and Part B - John's second family and his descendants. Each is shown to lead to the start of various current branches. Again, Part A and Part B are taken separately in the accompanying text. Also shown on this tree are other branches carried over from the first section which soon appear to have died out.
The third section continues from 1850 and shows the several branches which originated around this time and continue to this day. Under construction.