Study for VODDEN
My one-name-study of my maiden surname VODDEN began about 1998 when I received a hand written outline of an ancestry chart from a cousin living in Devon who had compiled it from parish records of the local churches and records at the North Devon Family History Society office. I had always been interested in our family history from a very early age and this was to be the beginning of an ever increasing passion.
The ancestry of my father’s line went back to Devon where within a very narrow area and few parishes a number of the instances of the name were noted. As a fairly uncommon name, I was always on the look out for the name and add the references to my study with the expectation of sharing my project with others. I gathered a great deal of information on a number of separate trees hoping that one day we would be able to connect the trees.
Trying to fill in some wives and children on the original chart I had received, I ran into a brick wall. Although searching through the IGI available on FamilySearch.org, I could see a number of ‘Vodden’s’ where they appeared to be in clusters in towns all around where my ancestors were reportedly to have originated. I started to gather these clusters and occasionally found a connection with my own family tree. From here, my search was on!! I gathered all the references to the name and any variants from every website that I could. Some fit but others were still many small clusters on their own.
In 2005 I registered with the Guild of One Name Studies and have since come across a number of variants of the name including the fact that my surname was originally purported to be VAWDEN back in the late 17th century.
In more recent times there are records of immigration to Canada, the United States of America and Australia which have added to my search in those countries.
More recently, I have pursued DNA results with various men of the Vodden surname which I will chronicle on its own page.
My GoONS study page can be found here: https://one-name.org/ and type in Vodden in the search box.
Vodden Surname Study 