Hello there, I am new to your list, I am trying to find my ancestors and wondered if they were from Ireland. My surname is OLLIER, almost all of the English OLLIER's came from one place, that is to say Cheshire in England, I have traced the line back to circa 1570 in Cheshire, before this date there is nothing! in 1570 there was only one OLLIER in Cheshire that has been found he has been recorded as HOLOWHEAR (1570) ALLOHIERE (1588 - 1611) his grandson was Micheal, recorded as OLEHEYER at Micheals wedding. From around 1660 onwards the name has been recorded as it is today that is to say OLLIER. Now, it has been said that the OLLIER's were French Huguenot's but to date I have found no evidence to date (we are NOT related to Isaac D'OLLIER (of Dublin) I was thinking maybe that it is an Irish name, it is clear from the early spellings that they were probably "strangers" to the County of Cheshire yet after a couple of generations the constonant "H" is dropped from the spelling. The names in Ireland that I am thinking of are such as OLEAHY, OHERLIHY etc + variants, is there anyone that could tell me how (phoneticaly) these names would sound to some one of English descent? Would find any help usefull to help me solve our OLLIER mystery. Thankyou for reading this. Best regards from Lawrence Ollier.