Who are we?

The Bednall Archive 

Last updated 23/03/2010

“We” are chiefly my brother David  and me -  both of us are mechanical engineers who have been fortunate enough to be able to retire early.  David’s career as an engineer and senior manager was spent principally with an internationally known, Nottingham based, cycle manufacturer.  My career after graduation, on the other hand, started in an electrical engineering and locomotive building firm in Loughborough, and ended in a government agency dealing with health and safety at work.  Both of us are married and have children and grandchildren for whom this family history research is ultimately intended. 

David and I started our family history research nearly 20 years ago with David concentrating on a rigorous exploration of our ancestors in the direct male line while I started a one-name study.  Later we extended our research to cover other branches of particularly the Dring, Axe and Simpson lines.  From 1986-96, developing careers prevented much progress despite the rarity of the family name - the occasional “dead end” also slowed things down.  Now that we are retired, we hope to sort the problems out, check all our data and present it in a user friendly way for others to use. 

Our research has been greatly aided by members of the “greater Bednall family”, in this country and abroad, with whom we’ve come into contact in recent years and by our Dring and Randall cousins.  They have unstintingly shared the results of their own research, and/or supplied photographs and supplied information. We would like thank them again for their friendship, help and support. 

Families we would like to know more about

We are interested not only in all references to the Bednall/Badnall/Bidnall/Beadnell etc, but also to the other family names listed below. 

Other Names

In researching the Bednall, Badnall, Beadnell, etc, family names in general and our own history we have amassed an archive of over a 3000 original documents and much other information about our own and other families.  Many of the documents came from the dispersed archives of an old established firm of solicitors in the town of Leek in Staffordshire and thus most of names referred to in these documents are those of families living in North Staffordshire or South East Cheshire.  For further information about names of interest found in the searchable index which we have provided please send us details of the name and our reference number to the Webmaster.

We are likely to acquire other documents on Macclesfield in Cheshire, Leek and some other places in Staffordshire, in coming years and will update our  list periodically.