In 1841 it starts to get interesting:

HO107/9/5 folio 5
Cotton End, Eastcotts
William Hares 70 Carpenter
Wlizabeth Hares 70
Fanny Hares 25
Thomas Hares 30 Carpenter
Phebe Hares 25
Ann Hares 2
John Hares 7 mths
Joseph Hares 5 mths

Next house
John Hare 50 ag lab
Mary Hare 61

and 2 doors further on
William Ayres 30 Carpenter
Mary Ayres 30
Joseph Ayres 11
Isaac Ayres 9

All except Phebe born in Bedfordshire

Strange how there's inconsistency in the spelling of Ayres/Hares/Hare, even on the same page.

Unfortunately relationships are not shown in 1841, but it looks as though William and Elizabeth are the parents of Fanny and Thomas (who were shown as brother and sister in 1851), and John age 7 months is the illegitimate son of Fanny. William may have been a son of William and Elizabeth given his age and occupation (in 1851 living in Cotton End he was 46, a carpenter, born Cotton End, Mary was 45 Maulden Beds, and Joseph was 20 born Cotton End)

But I'm struggling to find baptisms for any of them, and suspect that they were non-conformist. It doesn't make it any easier that that there seem to be so many spelling variations. which could even stretch to Harris.

There's a marriage on the IGI, extracted so reliable, at Hitchin Hertfordshire, which is only 13 miles from Cotton End on 11 Oct 1837 between Thomas Hares and Phoebe Highway, and there's a Phoebe Highway baptised in the Wesleyan Church (more non-conformists!)Kidderminster on 2 June 1816, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Highway. This looks a distinct possibility for George's parents but to make certain I would purchase the marriage certificate for her second marriage to Moses Summerfield in Bedford registration district in the September quarter 1863 volume 3b page 508 (per www.freebmd.org.uk) which will give you her maiden name. With any luck it should read "Phoebe Ayres formerly Highway". The alternative is to purchase George's birth cert which will give his mother's maiden name - what appears to have been his birth was registered in the June quarter 1841 in Bedford as George Ayres. Given the confusion as to the spelling of Ayres I would go for the marriage cert as you know this is Phoebe, mother of George and John W., from census evidence.

To find Thomas' parents marriage is proving difficult, but I'm working on it.

David

The info I have is that George Ayres b1849 or 1850..married Elizabeth Yoxen in 1876.
Their children were Rosa May b 1882, Laura b1884, Clara b1886, Percy George b1888 and Margaret b1891..
I have them in the 1881 census and the 1901 census. They had her mother ..Martha Yoxen and a boarder James Panling living with them.
George and Elizabeth married in 1876 in the Parish of Cardington..of which I have their marriage cert. I sent away today for Georges death cert which should tell me his parents names and hopefully his actual date of birth. From there the chance of going back further is promising. I have been on a paid site and downloaded a few births from 1849 to 1850 but Im not sure of the districts in that area ..so I will have to wait to see what this cert says.

Where did George die? Australia I hope, as the sort of detail you're seeking isn't included on English death certs.

Cotton End is in Bedford registration district.

Ignore my comment about George and 1841 in my previous post - I was confusing myself about his year of birth. There's a George Haires born Dec quarter 1849 in Bedford registration district which might be him.

I am pretty confident that your George and John W are sons of Thomas and Phoebe, and that Thomas is the son of William and Elizabeth. It's finding evidence that is the problem, as I am equally confident that they were non-conformists who didn't baptise their children in the established church, so there are no baptisms in parish registers. I have the transcript of Cardington parish register up to 1812 and none of them appear. The only ray of hope is that a William and Elizabeth Harris baptised a child in 1805, with no trace of them thereafter, and I wonder of this was William and Elizabeth Hares/Ayres. Still working on this.

David

A point to bear in mind is that whilst Cardington parish register pre 1813 has been extracted onto the IGI, 1813 onwards doesn't appear on either the IGI or the BVRI. You need to refer to the microfilm of the parish register, which can be ordered from and viewed at your nearest LDS Family History Centre.

It's possible that Thomas could have been a late baptism, possibly at the time that Fanny was born c1816

David

Hi Georgina ,
please get back to me in regards to John Ayres, i am trying to tie up a few loose ends that you may be able to help me with. I am trying to find out if John and our George's parents were Thomas and Phoebe Ayres, apparently the surname was written as Hares in some of the earlier census.
I would love to get in touch,
cheers Mandy

I have not done too much research ually) but I do know that the the name Ayres and hares got mixed up at one point. Apparently this was a common thing with registration in those days. The John Ayres that you refer to is definately the one who came to London in the late 19th century from Cotton End and married again mary and had a new family (my grandfather being one of them. George is vey much a family name (see mine) and my great grandfather had a brother called George - is he related to you? His parents were Thomas and Pheobe. John's first wife also mary was the daughter of publicans - the old bell in Cotten end

my e mail is

georginamariaayres@btinternet.com