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In 1996 I made a visit to England, during which I made the pilgrimage to the village of Ainsworth, where our surname originated. Please read about my discoveries, showing evidence of our family back to 1170 A.D.! (see below)

In the 17th century, probably about the time of the English Civil War, Ainsworths (along with thousands of other Lancastrians) came from Lancashire to America, some to New England, but most to the South (probably Virginia). My own ancestors came to the South, and most of the information on these pages concerns that branch of the family.

Special thanks to Barbara Ainsworth Montgomery and Bob Bollinger for their research which has opened so many doors, and to Lucille Ainsworth, whose work publishing the Ainsworth Trading Post Newsletter is the foundation for what we know.

An Ainsworth Pilgrimage: Our English Roots
• Where in the world did we come from?
• The Cotton Connection
• Ainsworth, Lancashire: Then and Now
• The Ainsworth Family From Norman Times (1170 A.D.)
• Two Ainsworth Scholars
• The Ainsworths of Smithills Hall
• Ainsworth Resource List - Internet links and info
• Asking for information from, and sending money to England from the U.S.
• The Ainsworths in New England
• The Ainsworths in the American South
• Ainsworth Coats of Arms

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Genealogy is my pastime, I shall not stray.
It maketh me to lie down and examine half-buried tombstones,
It leadeth me into still Courthouses.
It restoreth my ancestral knowledge.
It leadeth me into the paths of census records and ship’s passenger lists
for my surnames’ sake.
Yea, though I wade through the shadows of research libraries and
microfilm readers, I shall fear no discouragement.
For a strong urge is within me.
My curiosity and motivation, they comfort me.
It demandeth preparation of storage space for the acquisition
of countless documents.
It annointeth my head with burning midnight oil.
My family group sheets runneth over.
Surely birth, marriage and death dates shall follow me
all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of family history seekers
FOREVER!

--Anonymous