Hi. My grandfather is/was Marion Daniel Efird (b.12/25/1929) (son of Roda Gatlin and Lawrence Efird). He lived in Arkansas and married several times. The only thing he ever told my mother about our background was that we were Dutch and that was about it. Can anybody help me out here? I am trying to trace my ancestry as far back as I can for my kids, but, after people pass on, it's a little hard to ask them anything. And my mother claims that the Efirds of NC are not related, because her father never mentioned claim to any of them... I've got no other evidence to back up my mom, but I'm going to assume it's quite possible that the Arkansas and North Carolina Efird's are related. Any help at all, please email or post here. Thanks!

Almost a 100% yes. Pretty much anybody with the last name

Efird
Eford
Efford or
Evert

Came from the family Eirenfords which the name was shortened to different spellings after the civil war. I hope this helped.

David,
Thankyou for the info. I'm still researching my Efird lineage. I have added alot of census info., which, by the way, has the birth locations of several Efird's in North Carolina, living in Arkansas...
By the way, how are you related? Are we related???
Thanks!
Tiffany

All "Efirds" are related. Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina.
Ehrinfriedt was the original spelling. Pronounced "Aerferd", or thereabouts. English speaking government officials used phoenetic spellings for German names, so there were a lot of different spellings for our family name in many diverse documents. The men still living in Stanley County got together about 1840 and decided on an English spelling that would allow native English speakers to come as close as possible to the German pronunciation. That spelling was "Efird". So, since "Efird" is not a historical, traditional, family name, but is a artificial name, all Efird's are decendants from the Stanley County Efird's. Vibert Parker Efird is my grandfather.