Beresford Family Research

Our Family History:

Most Beresfords are keen to find out more about their own family history. But many of us only become interested in this subject later in life when it is often too late to ask elderly relatives what they can recall of their own relatives and their own family history.

The National Archives:

The National Archives are the main source of official information. Go to www.nationalarchives.gov.uk to see what records they hold.

Commercial Sites:

There are a number of commercial sites that, for a fee, will allow you to research their records. Whilst many of these are helpful, we have found others that have information that has been were copied from other sources and contain some inaccuracies.

Thomas & Agnes’s family:

The Society has been particularly interested in tracing the family tree of Thomas (c .1425) and his wife Agnes, whose tomb can be seen in St Edmunds Church, Fenny Bentley, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Thomas and Agnes had sixteen sons and five daughters and research has concentrated mainly on tracing the sons’ family trees right down to some Beresfords living today We also want to link as many Beresfords as possible both with each other and also, if possible, to this main pedigree.

Past research:

Various Beresfords in the past have researched our family history and published books on the subject. The earliest is ‘Beresford of Beresford Parts I & III’, which is about the history of the Manor of Beresford.

The main book which rekindled interest in the family’s history was produced by Col Hugh de la Poer Beresford TD in 1977 and is called ‘The Book of the Beresfords’. After writing to as many Beresfords as possible asking for details of their family history, he produced a most comprehensive study which contains not only the history of the family but also photos and many pedigrees..

Following further research, another book added more pedigrees. This was ‘Memorie:s, Stories and Pedigrees of the Beresford Family’ produced by Phillip Beresford in 1988.

More recently, two more volumes have been added to the Beresford library. The first, printed in 2011, is ‘The House of Beresford, Volume I , 1227-1727 - The first five hundred years’ , by Douglas K Beresford & Brian K Beresford. This covers the History of all the descendants of Thomas & Agnes. They followed this with Volume II in 2013 which covers notable Beresfords around the world between 1727 and 2012. (See ‘Books & Gifts’ section)

Help with research:

It would help our research if you could send us any details of your family and ancestors so that we gradually build up more complete records. We would need:-

  1. Dates/places of ancestors births, marriages and deaths including those of spouses.
  2. Names of all known brother/sisters of ancestors.
  3. Names of all known children of ancestors.
  4. Ancestors’ occupations and details of any known military service.

If you are a member of the Society, one of our volunteer researchers may be able to help you. See under ‘Contacts’.