The Bodwell family history site

Bodwell Family Stories

From a Welsh island and a London parish register to the Merrimack, the frontier and beyond

Nearly every Bodwell in North America descends from one man, Henry Bodwell, who came to New England as a boy in the 1660s, and his wife Bethia Emery. These stories follow the family from its legendary roots in Wales, through Henry's London boyhood and his life on the Massachusetts frontier, to the soldiers, settlers, builders and inventors who came after. Each story says what the records prove and what is still family tradition.

About this site

• Thanks to a Family of GenealogistsWith thanks to everyone, across four centuries, who wrote our story down, kept it safe, and pieced it back together
• The Bodwell Family MysteriesWhat we still don't know — and a few things we finally do

Wales and the Bodvels

• The Bodwells: A Welsh StoryTwo centuries of upheaval at a Welsh gatehouse
• 48 Generations in WalesForty-eight generations, from a legendary king to a boy on a ship
• The Bodwell Family ArmsA shield, a stone church, and a claim of ancient kinship
• Bardsey: The Bodwells' Pirate Island?How a Welsh gentleman came to own a holy island — and what he did with it

London: where Henry began

• Henry, a Mystery to be SolvedWhat the records prove about the first American Bodwell, what they don't, and how we might find out who he really was
• The London Henry Left BehindPlague, fire, a king's revenge and a trade in children: the world of a boy from Houndsditch
• Henry's Mother, Mary TiffinThe mother of the first Bodwell in America, and the life that shaped his

Henry and Bethia in New England

• Henry Bodwell, Our Great GrandfatherThe boy who crossed the ocean alone, and the family that grew from him
• The Battle of Bloody BrookHenry Bodwell, the "Flower of Essex," and the ambush the family very nearly didn't survive
• Bethia, Henry's WifeA daughter of Newbury, thirteen children, and a life on the edge of the frontier
• Facing Witchcraft HysteriaThe summer the witch hunt came to the Bodwells' town, and the old minister who stood against it
• Henry's DaughtersEight Bodwell women, and the New England families they carried our blood into
• The Last Will of HenryAn old man's mark, and what he left behind

The homestead: Haverhill, Methuen and Lawrence

• Haverhill, Methuen or Lawrence?Three towns, two names changed by other people, and one piece of ground that never moved
• Bodwell Falls and Lawrence, MAThe water that built a city
• Bodwell HousesFour generations under one roof, and the elm that outlived them
• A Street Named BodwellWhat's left behind when a family name outlives the family

Bodwells in American history

• Bodwells and the Revolutionary WarFrom Fort William Henry to Bunker's Hill
• Bodwells and the Civil WarThirty-one men, scattered across a divided country
• A President in the FamilyThe Bodwell line to Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States
• Over There: Bodwells in the Great WarA grandfather's dog tags, a decorated Canadian colonel, and the cousins who went to France
• Wings and Wounds: Bodwells in the Second World WarA father in a flying suit, a navigator generals asked for, a bomber crew hidden by the Danes, and a young writer who never came home

A Family's Life in America

• Full Cradles, Small GravesBig families, early deaths, and how close our ancestors lived to loss
• Axe, Ox and PlowWhat farming was like for Henry Bodwell, and for the Bodwells who carried the plow west
• Bodwells on the MoveA family that never quite stopped travelling
• Steam, Sparks and Shoe LeatherRailroads, mills, electric light and the Bodwells who worked them, 1865–1914
• Radios, Reels and Hard TimesRadio, the movies, oil, and how the family got through the Depression, 1919–1939

Interesting family stories

• Joseph Bodwell and Bodwell GraniteFrom a Methuen farmhouse to the governor's chair
• The Buildings Built with Bodwell GraniteBodwell Blue paint, Vinalhaven stone, and the landmarks it built across America
• Bodwell Granite Company StoreSixty years of convenience, credit, and conflict on one small island
• Governor Bodwell HouseA plain Greek Revival farmhouse, dressed up for a governor
• The Jukebox InventorA forgotten inventor, the first drop changer, and the dawn of the jukebox
• The Sanbornton BodwellsA parson, a schoolmistress, a professor and an architect from one New Hampshire hill town
• Lewis Bodwell, Free-State PreacherA New Haven boy in Bleeding Kansas: a church built by hand, John Brown's last escape, and a close call with Quantrill
• Ebenezer Vining Bodwell, MPFrom an Upper Canada farm to the first Parliament of Canada, the Welland Canal, the railway to the Pacific and the young city of Vancouver