My Research

I am keen to hear from anyone with Hollyer, Holyer or Hollier in their families and will try to help provide information where I can. I can probably provide many short-cuts to your research from data already collected. In some cases, I may be prepared to do some extra research on your behalf. I would also welcome offers of assistance with research!

This is a true One-Name Study - I am interested in any Hollyer, Holyer or Hollier irrespective of whether they relate to my own Hollyer line (which in fact started out as Holyer). I have not systematically collected data on other name variants, but there are several other variants which occur in transcription. These are described here.

Where have I got to?

Given that no One-Name Study is ever complete, this is a pertinent question to ask. In January 2007, I published in the Journal of One-Name Studies an article about my study. You can read this article here, in Adobe Acrobat form (830k filesize). This gives a useful summary of my conclusions to date, although since writing it, my research into the Isle of Wight Holliers has advanced considerably.

What data do I have?

I have a large database including all references from the IGI, the Mormon Vital Records Indexes (UK, USA, Australia and Western Europe), the GRO BMD indexes 1837-2003, census indexes for 1841-1901 censuses, Parish Register extracts, wills and will indexes and calendars, marriage licences and indexes, burial indexes, monumental inscriptions, military records and many other sundry sources.

Resources on the web are frequently trawled for data. References in literature have also been collected.

While I do have a good deal of information about the families in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, this is not as comprehensive as that for Great Britain, though getting better all the time as more families from abroad contact me and new sources become available.

I am happy to let other researchers have information from this large database, but hope you will similarly let me have any connections and families that you know about. Please contact me using the Guestbook or by if you have any interest in these names. Alternatively, you may wish to learn about ongoing research via the Blog or Mailing List.

I hope to hear from you.

(Son of Nellie Eileen Hollyer, from the Kent Hollyer family)