Hi, My grandmother was a Syner and her father (James William whose father was also James)was a grandson of your James and Maria. Their origins lie in Lye, Stourbridge, Worcestershire area of the heavily industrialised Black Country in England. I hope you see this and please get back to me because I'd love to know about James and Maria ( I've been unable to find out about their deaths but know James has died before 1861 because Maria appears on our census for then as a widow with her family).William is there and, along with 2 other siblings, has place of birth as Paris St. Germaine, France. I can only conclude that they were in France for a few years then came back. In the 1871 census, William is married to Emma (married 1869 Stourbridge) and living with her family (again in Lye) and no Maria (his brother James, my grt, grt grandfather, is also married by then (1863) and she's not in his household). William and his family then moved up to Northumberland (records show Harry Syner baptised there in 1881). Kind regards, Jackie