Betzold/Bedsole Deutchland/Germany Wappen Der Provinc Brandenburg Vas Der Betzoldz Ich Bin Ein Deutchlander BETZOLD /BEDSOLE COAT OF ARMS Ich Bin Ein, Deutchlander .......................................................................................................................................................................... "NOW EACH OF YOU CAN SEE, HOW IT IS, YOU CAME TO BEE".......................JD Bedsole © COPYRIGHT: 1996,1997,1998,1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,2004,2005,2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. JD Bedsole. All Rights Reserved. Copying this booklet is free for your own use, but copying it, or any part of it, for sale, or incorporation into something else for sale, is absolutely not permitted. MY LAST VERSION: JANUARY 1, 2009 AFTER 58 LONG YEARS OF RESEARCH, THIS IS MY LAST VERSION OF THE BEDSOLE HISTORY AND LIST OF ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS. ACCORDINGLY, ALL PRIOR VERSIONS ARE OBSOLETE AND ERRONEOUS AND SHOULD BE DESTROYED. BEDSOLE HISTORY FROM 1673 WITH DOCUMENTATION AND LIST OF ANCESTORS, AND DESCENDANTS RESEARCHED, COMPILED, ANALYZED AND PREPARED IN ITS ENTIRETY, SOLELY BY DR. J.D. BEDSOLE,ASME,BSBA,BSVE, MSEA, PhD. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EARLIEST BEDSOLES IN THIS COUNTRY, SUCH AS: 1.Where did they come from?. Who were they?. Where did they settle here? Did they move around, and if so, where to ?. How did they live?.What was it like ? What were they like ? Was life hard for them ? 2. Locations, names, relationships, kinships, and documentation on early Bedsoles with records of early Marriages,Census Data,Tax Lists, Land Transactions, Cemeteries and etc 3. References for current and future Bedsole Researchers CONTENTS PART ONE...............................Bedsole History And Documentation. PART TWO..............................Ancestors And Descendants List …..................................................................PAGE ONE........................................................................... NOTE; In order to save time, if after you have read this, you want to email me and tell me how you are now more confused than ever, how stupid I really am, and how this was all such a huge waste of time, please don’t bother. I have already been told those things at least a million times. Thanks anyway though, for the thought. NOTE, this is specifically to call your attention to the Copyright notice at the top of this page. Please read it and comply with it. BEDSOLE HISTORY As you can see, not being a computer Czar, I cannot control the location of the page numbers in this book. When I type it, its fine, but when I transfer it to a file, it gets all out of whack. Then, when I transfer it to you, it will not stay as typed, and the numbers may be any place on the page, and names, dates and etc., move around between computers and format changes. I have no idea how to keep all that from happening. Apparently. no one else does either and I have asked every one I know. Anyway, the numbers are theoretically at the bottom of each page. At least we can use the numbers as location markers, so we can say "Its between numbers 156 and 157” or whatever. That will prevent having to guess where something is located. Since this is my last version and I have been all over the internet asking for information from other Bedsoles, and receiving next to nothing, if you see something which is wrong or you have additions to make to the List in Part Two, please don’t tell me about it. I quit. In the beginning, I just wanted to know where I got this name. But, as time went on, and I learned more and more about our ancestors and all the unbelievable hardships they endured, I realized that unless I researched and wrote this History and the related Ancestor And Descendant list, all the current and future Bedsole descendants would never know what those ancestors went through and would never know their true roots either. But I also knew that if I did'nt do it, then it would never be done, because I knew that few people have what it takes to spend that many years of their lives to produce this kind of information on their ancestors and descendants. Does that make me some kind of super-human, you ask ? …YES INDEED it does in fact. I began this project in 1950.This History and List and especially the List, represents more than 58 years of the most demanding, expensive, time-consuming, frustrating, demanding and maddening work I have ever PAGE 1 enountered.in my life. Now, I give it to all you Bedsoles and relatives most of whom I don't even know, for nothing. I hope you truly appreciate what went into it, and what it represents. I know how priceless it really is, and I hope you do too. Believe me, it becomes more valuable to the point of being absolutely priceless, as you get older. So, keep it, treasure it, and pass it down to your children. But always remember who produced it........thats ME and me alone. Although I do greatly appreciate the information provided by a precious few who emailed it to me, regarding the List. Many thanks to those few.. In the absence of most-needed documentation and by reading, researching, analyzing and documenting what little Bedsole information was available, together with all the books, websites, and other relevant historical sources, then flying to Germany twice and researching there, because my Dad had said Bedsole originated in Germany, I have put together my best, educated and informed guesses in many cases, at what I feel is very close to the facts back then. Some of my conclusions may prove to be wrong in the future, but I invite anyone to prove anything I claim to be true, is actually wrong. The only acceptable proof from someone that I have something wrong however, would be their own documentation and not their best guess. Best guess by anyone else, would not be as accurate, and certainly not more accurate than my own and I guarantee that. Here are only a few reasons why one can spend so much time and money looking for the older Bedsole records and never find any. First of all, no less than 55 counties in NC where the first ones arrived in Bath County, NC, from Germany, were created or partially created from Bladen County, where, in 1950, I first found the Bedsoles. Just trying to find some records on Bath County, NC alone (which became Beaufort County) where the first Bedsole appeared, I ran into this: What few records do exist for Bath County are scattered in the courthouses of some of its early precincts, and in the Archives in Raleigh. No one knows what is where, or if in fact, any records at all, do exist. Bath County's earliest recorded deeds for example, date from 1700 and are included in Beaufort Co. Deed Book One (1701-1729). However, several other early Bath County deeds and other documents, some dated before 1700, may be found in the records of Albemarle County and scattered among its various precincts, and there are likely some in other unknown counties. Most of the earliest records of Craven and Hyde Counties (Created from Bath) have not been preserved at all, and they surely had many Bath County records too. Beaufort and Hyde Precincts are known to have held joint sessions of court, for and including Bath, apparently in Beaufort. Eighteen Bath County Wills (1702-1718), mostly for both Beaufort and Hyde Precincts, were recorded in Beaufort Precinct and may be found in Beaufort County's Land Deed Book (Terrific logic) # 1 and, although they are Wills, they are not recorded in the Will Books in the Beaufort County Clerk's Office, as you would expect. Also ten of the eighteen do not appear in Grimes' "Abstracts of North Carolina Wills 1663-1760" probably because the originals of the ten were never sent to the Secretary of State as required by law. In fact, over 60 more Beaufort County Wills dated 1720 to 1760 were retained in the courthouse and later copied into the Old Will Book and thus they also do not appear in Grimes' volume. Only a few of the Wills proved before 1700 have survived in the records identified in the NC State Archives as "Secretary Of State Wills". A majority of the North Carolina counties have transferred all or part of their surviving original wills to the State Archives, however, some counties did not do that and have kept all or part of them, and looking and researching is the only way to determine which county did what or has what, or which have nothing at all on file. There is no one and no place you can go to, to find out what is where. And by the way, Good luck on finding any of them. The only way to be certain though, is to go look for yourself, and for that, you need about 20 years and more than a million dollars for motels, food and etc.. So, just finding out where documents may be located takes an unbelievable amount of time and even if you find where they may be, they still may either be buried somewhere in the county records but no one knows where, may not exist at all, or are physically located in some other unknown counties, places, boxes, or categories. Additionally, to add to the Mess, the Bedsoles until about 1950, went by all kinds of surnames such as Betsol, Bletsoul, Batsoal and etc. On top of that, way too many of them went by nicknames and/or middle names all of which were major and time-consuming problems. In addition, there were many with identical whole names, living at the same times and places.