11/25/07 VERSION: BEDSOLE HISTORY FROM 1673 ... - NCGenWeb

"Bedsole" and "Bledsoe" could be related ; "One thing I find interesting is the early
date of the Bletsoe name in the year1086 in England. According to some of the first
English Court Cases, apparently a community named "Bledsoe" was there before
William the Conqueror brought his army from Normandy; and, if so, it would make
Bletsoe an Anglo-Saxon community. Further, if it was Anglo-Saxon, that would give
Bletsoe a German connection because the Angles and the Saxons both emigrated
to England from Germany. It was the Angles, in fact, who gave us the name
"England" ("Angle Land" was, over time, shortened to England).The Anglo-Saxon
folks were Germanic, while the people that emigrated when William conquered
England were former Vikings from Scandinavia who had settled in France. They
were initially called "Norse" ("Northmen") and the area of France where they settled
became "Normandy" (the land of the Northmen). However, being from Scandinavia,
they spoke a version of German and were out of the same tree as the Germanic
tribes who settled in what became modern day Germany (previously "Allemandia")
the Bletsoe family name, in theory, could have been an Anglicanization of an earlier
Germanic name (e.g., Betzold)". In Germany, I also tried to research Bledsoe and
Bedsaul because of the similarities in Spelling. As Bedsole, Bledsoe and Bedsaul
are "Murdered" in their early english spellings in this country, they suffered the same
fate in Germany, as there are various mispellings of them over there too, to the point
you don't know which is correct and which is a mispelling of the name(s).
In the same email, Charles was kind enough to send me the internet address of the
first english court records. In reviewing several of those cases, I came across one
wherein Mary Bletsoe was a witness in a rape trial, dated in the year 1081, in
England. I also noted that she lived in a Bledsoe Community. If you have any
interest in reading about old english court cases, or looking at old legal proceedings,
go here on the internet : www.oldbailey.com
In Germany, I found nothing really new because so much of its record system had
been destroyed in all the fires, from the wars that country has been involved in.
However, I did look up, meet and talk to several Betzold descendants, including a
Wilhelm Betzold (William Bedsole), who had in his storeroom, an original Coat Of
Arms, which I copied and have on hand. Nevertheless, I believe there is a common
ancestor for both Bledsoe and Bedsole somewhere in the past. I do know that the
evidence that there is or is not, does not exist in the United States. I believe such an
ancestor existed most likely in Prussia.
To find out anything about passenger shipping records from Germany, England or
Ireland, from as far back as I could find information up to about 1800, the period I
was most interested in, one needs to know at least the following: The exact names
of passenger(s) as listed on ships records, keeping in mind that Scribes at the time
wrote and spelled the names the best they could guess from what was said,
because people in general then could neither read nor write, much less spell. Names
of the ships they sailed on (many ships had the same name), the owner(s) of the
ships, the country of the ships registry. Do you have any idea how long that alone
would take and how much you would spend, finding that out, if you could find it at