The Teear One-Name Study started in November 2012 and is registered with the Guild of One-name Studies. 
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The One Name Study, Teear, Tear, Teare, Teer & McTear began because of my interest in my mother’s maiden name Teear, she was born in Cardiff, Wales, I initially thought the Teear family were of Welsh origin. However I was wrong, I found that by following my mother’s line back, it was my 2x Great Grandfather Joseph Teear b 1830 in Leicestershire who had left the village of Husbands Bosworth to find work and after marrying in Pembrokeshire and moving around to the Staffordshire area, then down to the Bristol area, he then moved the family for a brief visit to Tottenham in Middlesex, before finally settling the family down Cardiff in Wales, where the family grew via the various marriages of his children. But after Joseph’s marriage the surname started to be recorded more often as Tear, even my grandfather was born a Tear, but both his marriage and death were recorded as Teear, why was this? and when was it discovered that their true surname was Teear? why did some of the family choose to remain a Tear and not a Teear as they were supposed to be.
Researching Joseph Teear’s family back further led me to discover this Teear line goes back a further 6 generations to my 7 x Great Grandfather John Teear who died in 1685 in Saddington (which ironically is also a One-Name Study name) Leicestershire and the families populated many areas of Leicestershire, but the Hot Spot for the Teear name was Husbands Bosworth.
I also discovered, that many of these family members were often recorded as either Teear, Tear, Teare, Teer in BMD records. I wanted to understand why this was, where the Teear name originated from further back and how many of the other variant names were connected to my Leicestershire Teear’s and really that was why I started my One Name Study. So my quest began and so it continues.
The One-Name Study initially included the variants Tear, Teare, Teer. Recently I have added McTear to the study as a result of finding Tear family members, who had origins over the border in Scotland. When the family moved across the boarder into England the ‘Mc’ was dropped from the name, for the moment, it is not sure why, following family members of this line were then recorded as just Tear.
This in it’s self shows the first evidence of a variant having Scottish roots, is this to be the same for my Teear’s or the other variants? I’m hoping time will tell.
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. Bob was very interested to learn the ‘True’ origins of the Teear/Tear name, he called me his ‘Teear Bloodhound’ and I promised him I would do my best to find out the origins of the Teear name.
So my plan for the One-name study is to explore the distribution of the variant surnames in the study both nationally and globally, to find out if the families in different locations are linked and to discover the other ‘Hot spots’ of these variant surnames.
This is being undertaken by recording the variant names in various sources of Baptisms, Births, Marriages, Deaths and in the Census returns and also in Military Records, Wills and Travel records. I have already have done and continue to do extensive family tree reconstructions, which often throw up links from across the globe in places such as the US, Canada, Australia to records in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man.
The Teear, Tear, Teare, Teer & McTear One-Name Study also has a Facebook group, where group members meet other members connected to the study. Just enter the title in the search box to find us. It is a closed group where members are both invited and request to join and it growing all the time.
St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church – Husbands Bosworth
The following photo was taken by myself at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Husbands Bosworth, where many of the Teear family were christened and married. The stained glass window is beautiful and I decided to use it on my header for the study.
St Mary’s is a privately owned church, but welcomes all parishioner of the Roman Catholic faith. Built by the ancestors of Bosworth Hall in Husbands Bosworth, only the family of Bosworth Hall are interred here in the family’s vaults. It’s a beautifully kept church and you can find out more about it below:
http://www.husbandsbosworth.info/index.php/local-information/st-mary-s-church