Tim Boddington Webmaster
I am always interested in your
The online database is being
regularly updated |
I first put these pages up on the web in Spring 2000 in the
hope that there would be a few interested souls out there who would perhaps
send me a message of interest.
I could never have guessed what an avalanche of information would come
my way and continues to do so. I am most grateful to all those who have
sent me the most amazing collections of interesting information that
must have taken an enormous amount of time to research and discover.
Great numbers of family lines have come to light and I have tried to
include them all on the family tree.
One of the most striking things about these people is that almost all
of them know that their families originate from Warwickshire, Northamptonshire,
Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire or Gloucestershire - in a broad
agricultural strip of the east and south Midlands. These were clearly
hotbed centres of Boddington, and Bodington, life, possibly for many
centuries - see origins
of the name.
Not surprisingly there are very many loose ends - so many family lines
(see family structure for the main lines)
that are probably related somewhere if only we had a few extra bits of
information. So, please, keep sending me your lines, and I will keep
adding them into the chart.
These pages are for the benefit of the Boddington family - if
you're a Boddington, no matter where in the world, then these
pages are for you! The simple objective is to bring together in one place
all Boddingtons,
their genealogy, history, and achievements, to meet each other through
the wonder of modern communications and to share in each others interests.
In December 2007 I added a couple of lines of Bodingtons -
the one D Bodingtons -
and in June 2009 I have added over 470 people to the one D Bodington
lines and given them a page set of their own. There must be a number
of variations in the spelling which are one and the same family, and
members of the two families come from villages in Warwickshire (Pailton
and Harborough Magna - Great Harborough) that are just two miles apart!
So perhaps by including lines from these we might just find a link somewhere!
This page will provide the focal point for all people with the family
name of Boddington (or Bodington), as well as
those ladies who were born a Boddington but lost the name on marriage.
And, of course, those whose mothers or grand mothers were Boddingtons.
This page is provided by Tim Boddington - that's me above, interestingly
one of at least four Tim Boddingtons that I now know of although
to be truthful Timothy is my second name. I'm really a Samuel Boddington.
I am a member of a large family of Boddingtons,
mostly living in the UK so far as I know. While searching the internet
and as a result of this family page I have become aware of the large
number of Boddingtons spread
out around the globe. Some are or may be related to me, many are not,
or at least not obviously so. My own family tree has been drawn back
250 years or so and there are other individuals who may be related to
my family but are not proven to be. There are many other Boddingtons who
do not seem to be connected with us but, in the dim and distant past,
may well be.
The best known Boddington family is that of brewing fame. A Pedigree
of that family was compiled in 1889 by Reginald Stewart Boddington.
This pedigree presently provides a large number of the names in this
web site. You may wish to go directly to Henry Boddington,
brewer. His autobiographical history, Record
of the Life of Henry Boddington,
is also available. Oddly, at the outset I knew nothing about Reginald
Stewart; he didn't appear on his 1889 family tree. However, in 2003 and
early 2004 further information of his came to light that put him into
some context with details of his own family. Many thanks to Warren Lloyd,
John Chapple and John Breese.
Boddington is not a very frequent name. The possibility exists
that we are all related - some of the recent discoveries in DNA analysis,
now available to the public, might even prove it one day, one way or
the other. It should be possible, if we all pool our family information,
to build up a family tree that really shows who we are and who we are
related to.
One D Bodingtons
The majority of information on the one
D Bodingtons came from Deborah Bodington who lives in Rhode Island USA.
The information was put together by her late husband. He was considerably
assisted by Nelson Sanson and a UK family who passed valuable information
after discovering old documents.
It is a truly fascinating collection. The earliest
identified member of the family was William Bodington whose family came
from Great Harborough in north east Warwickshire, UK. Over the generations
they are found in many of the villages in that area as well as further
afield in Kenilworth, Cubbington and Charlecote. The interesting thing
about this (well, to me anyway) is that my own family of Boddingtons
(with two Ds) came from the same general area! The probability of relationship
is considerable with one family being descended from the other and having
a different spelling only by the mis-stroke of a pen. Research has shown
that one family of my earliest ancestors spelt their names with both
one and two Ds. I am now of the view that the original spelling of my
tree was one D and that they changed (without intent) to two Ds. Further
research may hopefully tell us for sure. This does not mean that all
two D Boddingtons were once one D, the change evidence relates only to
one tree.
The family spread far and wide over time so that
today we have a very strong family in Rhode Island USA, particularly
well settled in Little Compton where they have lived for generations
and do still today. There are further outposts in South Africa, Australia,
California USA, and still, of course, in the UK.
For the structure and range of family lines please
go to the Structure page.
A significant member of the family was Senator
Frederick A H Bodington from Rhode Island. By good fortune three
of his letters have survived giving us a fine insight into his life
in 1919 and 1920.
Another significant father and son were both doctors
and both enjoyed exceptional careers. See Dr
George Bodington and his son Dr
George Fowler Bodington.
If your name is Boddington or Bodington, or, ladies, if you or your mother's or grand mother's maiden name was Boddington or Bodington, then I would like to hear from you - please sending me an email just to introduce yourself.
Security Policy
I will maintain
basic information on living persons in my database but this will not
be accessable on the web site. In the absence of specific information
a person will be assumed to be deceased approximately 90 years after
their known birth or approximately 120 years after the birth of their
parents. Where the individual is deceased I will try to publish as much
information as is available in order to complete the genealogical record.
Where I find a relationship between individuals who do not know of each
other I will obtain agreement from each to disclose their identity and
contact information to the other. The same will apply to those found
to be researching in the same branch of the family.
Web site achievements
One of the joys of a web site such as this is the regularity with which it brings together people who are related but who didn't know of each other before. Three or four times each year I manage to bring people together with usually distant lines of connection - cousins several times removed.
In September 2004 the site achieved its greatest success yet. A chap who was adopted at birth was looking for his mother and asked if I could help. By great good fortune a lady with the name of his natural mother had emailed me four years before and after sensitive enquiry it was confirmed that she was indeed his mother. They are now getting to know one another and making up for those 35 missing years.
Help
I am frequently asked for help on starting out on the search for ancestors but there are far better sources than I. Try looking for help pages on the web such as Genealogy Learning Center which is full of practical advice on the subject.
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