- Ian Ayres began life in a traveling carnival owned by his father's parents. His father would joke about baby Ian being first prize at the rifle range he ran: using rifles that shot real bullets at moving targets. The name of the family's traveling carnival that his father was also born into was "Cavalcade of Fun". Ian also traveled with his father in "Paul Miller's Wild Animal Circus".
- Ian's great grandmother, Marie Dionne, was the sister of Joseph Dionne, the paternal great grandfather of the Dionne Quintuplets. Joseph Dionne's grandson, Oliva Dionne was shocked when his wife, Elzire, gave birth to five identical daughters in May 1934. Ian Ayres' grandmother was four months pregnant with his father at the time and greatly concerned that multiple births ran in the family. Olivier, son of Joseph Dionne and grandfather to the Quints, used to chase tourists off their farm with a pitchfork.
- The mother of Ian's father performed in Vaudeville and, in 1941, was Gypsy Rose Lee's private dresser/assistant at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. Gypsy's performance of her striptease routine scandalized the community because it fell on Easter Sunday.
- Cousin of I Dream of Jeannie (1965) star Barbara Eden.
- Cousin of Katherine Fugate.
- The film Carolina (2003/I) is loosely based on his family, with Julia Stiles playing his cousin Katherine Fugate; Shirley MacLaine playing his aunt, though based more on his grandmother; and Jennifer Coolidge as "Aunt Marilyn" playing his mother, named Marilyn.
- Descendent of King Hroarr Hraerek (in "Beowolf") Elfhere King of Denmark Halfdansson (526-620).
- Descendent of Mayflower Gov. William Bradford (1590-1657).
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