Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Teear
Variants: McTear, McTeer, Tear, Teare, Teears, Teer
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Guild hosted website: teear.one-name.net
DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Teear
Contact: Mrs Sue Church
My One Name Study is dedicated to Robert Tear CBE renowned 'Welsh Tenor & Conductor' who died prematurely in 2011, he was the most famous of my Welsh Teear/Tear family line.
Robert was very impressed with the work I was doing on our Family History, but sadly didn't have the time to look into his family history and like me wanted to know the origins of our family name, it was obvious it wasn't named after a place, a job or trade, it's even been suggested there are French origins, who knows and so the Teear One-Name study commenced in November 2012.
Like many one-name studies, it grew out of an attempt to trace my own ancestry and it's my mother's birth name Teear, which has always rather intrigued me. I initially was looking to find and trace my Welsh Teear family.
I had found my Grandfather and Great grandfather and their immediate families sorted, but then kept getting information for the Teear name, which was directing me to Leicestershire, this was where I discovered my Teear family line originally came from and I have followed this back as far as the 1500's.
My 2x Great Grandfather started off the Welsh Teear/Tear lines after leaving the Leicestershire village of Husbands Bosworth between 1841 - 1851 and then marrying his wife in Rosemarket in Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1855, hence my Quest began.
I'd like to someday discover the origins of my Teear family name, as it's so unusual.
I have added 4 variants of my Teear family name: Tear, Teare, Teer & McTear, there is a strong possibility that the family names all originated from Ireland or Scotland initially and from Scandinavia going further back in time.
The Census records throughout time have show many of the names recorded as Tecar, Lear, Tare & Seer, even Leer on occasions and this is only a few, mainly due to mis-spelling. I guess this was probably down to local dialect and the lack of education in some family members.
The first name Teear is the 2nd least common of my study names, which I know has been used by my direct Welsh line and the ones from Leicestershire.
The 2nd name Tear variant is the most common of the variant names, especially in Lancashire and the Isle of Man.
The 3rd name Teare is the 2nd of the most common of the variant names, especially in Lancashire and the Isle of Man.
The 4th variant name Teer is the least common of all the variant names, a few in Leicestershire & the Isle of Man, but mostly they were found to be from Lancashire again.
The 5th variant name of McTear, as the name suggest, is mostly to be found in Scotland, although I do have evidence that some moved down from Scotland into Lancashire and dropped the 'Mc'. Along with the other Mc variants. Mc Mac being 'the son of' .......?
So far I have traced my Direct Male Line of the Teear family name back to Leicestershire in the villages around Market Harborough, mainly from the villages of Saddington (the attached photo is of St Helen's Church in Saddington) Husbands Bosworth, Smeaton Westerby and Kibworth Beauchamp,this is the area where there are the largest recorded number of Teears.
I do know for sure that some from the area were also recorded as Tear in Birth, Marriage & Death registrations. I also know for sure that the ones who migrated around different parts of England, especially Lancashire also like my Welsh line, dropped a 'e'.
However there are some Scottish Teear,Tear,Teare, Teer and the Mc variant family members, a very large number Tear and Teare families also live in the Isle of Man and I need to delve further to see if we are linked, perhaps the Teears moved down from Scotland and across to the Isle of Man, only time will tell.
I have come a cross a story in a letter from a man called Thomas Teare from the Isle of Man who emigrated to America, about how he had heard the Teare/Tear family name came to be on the island. He was told about a man named William McTear from Scotland, who had been in some sort of 'Trouble' and then moved to the Isle of Man with 3 of his sons. This is just one of the many different stories I've heard, I shall be collecting these and people may make their own minds up for what they feel is right.
Robert Tear CBE the renowned Welsh Tenor and conductor (Born in Wales & Died in March 2011) Robert 'Bob' was a very talented man from the Welsh town of Barry. His family we church goers who liked to sing, many of the Teear/Tear children attended Sunday School and sang in their local Church Choir's. Robert went a step further and brought to the world the sound of Wales.
Constance Hannah 'Connie' Tear was born in 1908 in Newport, Monmouthshire in Wales, she was an only child, her mother died soon after giving birth to 'Connie', but the Tear family all rallied around to give her and her father, Robert all the support they needed. She was a well educated lady and a talented writer who wrote Historical Novels and wrote for Children's stories for the BBC. She never married and died in Cardiff in 1976.
Graham Robert John Byron Teear was an Canadian Actor and Television performer, who with his wife Harriet starred in the Toronto version of the musical 'Hair' in the mid 1970's. Born in Cardiff Wales, the family moved to Canada in 1953. Graham died prematurely of a Brain Hemorrhage in Toronto in Canada in 1986 aged 50yrs, he was my mother's cousin. Graham and Harriet had two daughters.
The 1881 England Census recorded that 56% of Teear family members were living in the county of Leicestershire (9 of 16) 38% of Teear family members were living in the County of Somerset (6 of 16 people) and in Lancashire there was 8% (1 of 8).
The 1881 Scottish Census recorded that 50% of Teear family members were living in Stirlingshire(1 of 2)
I know some of the Teear lines are going to disappear in the not too distant future, mainly due to the lack of son's to carry on the name. I would like soon to work out the ratio of Male to Female family members and to also do this for all the named variants. So this is on going work.
I have added some Maps showing the distribution of all the study names in the 1881 Census.
According to an ONS database there are some 69 Teear as of September 2002 in England and Wales, so as you can work out it's a rare name. This suggests that the Teear name is slow growing than the population as a whole.
But throughout Great Britain they moved to Lancashire, into Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire with some splintering off into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
I know for a fact Teear families emigrated to Canada, the USA, Australia and other areas of the world, so this awaits further investigation as to where in the 4 corners of the world they also migrated to.
I have records showing that many of the other variant names also migrated away from England, to America, Australia, New Zealand, to mention just a few, again this is on-going work.
I am still 'Gathering' plenty more data at the moment, adding many new record sets to my collection. I have now started collecting the data for the 1921 Census, across ALL study surnames.
Census 1841 - 1911 and 1939 Register have also now been collected.
I have finished recording all the Birth Registration Records for my ONS. These have now been uploaded onto the Guild Archive Page, to enable anyone to do a search for Teear,Tear,Teare & Teer & McTear Births.
I have now added the Death Registration Records in England & Wales for both Teear, Teare, Teer, Tear & McTear.
All England & Wales Marriage Registrations for McTear, Tear, Teare, Teer & Teear are now available on the Archive Page.
Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 for McTear are now uploaded onto the Archive Page for searching. Marriages and Deaths to follow. I have also collected these records for M'Ateer, Mateer, M'Atear, McTyre & McTeir, but as they are not part of the study, officially they have not been added, please ask if you require information on any of these names.
Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958 for McTear are now uploaded onto the Archive Page for searching. Marriages to follow. I have also collected these records for M'Ateer, Mateer, M'Atear, McTyre & McTeir, but as they are not part of the study, officially they have not been added, please ask if you require information on any of these names.
I do have an extensive about of Data available in my own Archives, so please do contact me, it's possible I may already have what your looking for and can help you with your discovery.
I also have a large number of Family Tree's constructed for many of the variants, so please do contact me for more information as I might already have your line added.
Much of this is also added to my website Teear.one-name.net, you will also find Census information for the Isle of Man 1841 - 1901 and England & Wales census information 1841 - 1911 for all study names.
Some interesting Data on Study name Occupations in the 1881 England & Wales Census.
For many years we have been conducting a Ydna project for the study, this can be found at https://www.familytreedna.com/, where you can also contact me about the study. We have been getting many more people asking to take part in Ydna testing, this is across the range of the variant names and we are getting some surprising results. Lately a Teer from the US with Irish roots, has been found to have a connection with 3 Manx Teare surnames. We are collectively working together to find the connections and are making steady progress.
A Teear cousin of mine (With Leicestershire heritage) has taken a 37 marker Ydna test and also a Tear member who has a Northamptonshire origin Direct Male line. The results have shown that neither are Genetically realted to any of the Study surnames with Manx Origins, ie: Tear or Teare, but they are closely related to each other. Therefore, we are looking for suitable candidates to test for DML Tear with English origins.
Whilst my associate has been keeping an eye on our current YDNA members test results, I have been extending the Tree reconstructions for the English Tear lines, most appear to stem from either Northamptonshire or Bedfordshire/Cambridgeshire, cross referencing with data already collected, they are plenty of suitable YDNA candidates out there, are YOU one of THEM?
If you are interested, Please do get intouch and hopefully we can make some new 'Discoveries' all VERY exciting indeed.
This year I have been working with my friend Mike Teare (http://teareandsons.com/) on the WW1 Teare Memorial Page to highlight the Teare men who died in WW1. We are to extend this to Tear men also, this is work in progress, but you can see the project so far on the link below:
http://teareandsons.com/ww1-teare-memorial-page/
The study also has a Facebook page. If your interested just enter Teear, Tear, Teare, Teer & McTear to find us.
The One-Name Study now has a website, go to teear.one-name.net, this is WIP, but last year I added an interesting story for an event that one of my Teear family members was caught up in. This story evolved into a 5 year project involving researching the whole crew of M Class Destroyer HMS Mary Rose, which was sunk on the 17th October 1917 and as we are coming to the end of marking the 100th Anniversary of the end of WW1, I thought it would be an idea to 'Do Something' to remember this event.
So during October I embarked on 6 day round trip from Nottingham to Plymouth and Portsmouth to lay a wreath at the Naval Memorials where members of HMS Mary Rose are recorded.
The first wreath laying in Plymouth, where my Thomas Edward Teear is recorded, I found it a particularly moving experience, especially as I found to my delight that the tour of the Tower of London Poppies was also along side the Naval memorial and that evening the 'Last Post' was played. Although I have heard this before, this time it really struck home.
The final stage of the trip was to the Naval memorial at Chatham, where I had arranged to meet with other crew member's descendants, I organised for the Royal British to be present and we held a service of remembrance with a Naval Chaplain taking the service. Afterwards I organised for us to have a reception at a local hotel, where everyone could meet and chat about how their family member was involved. It was a Fantastic journey for all of us.