Heseltine One Name Study & The Heseltines of Bishopdale

My original family history research concentrated on the HESELTINE families in Bishopdale in the Yorkshire Dales. Bishopdale is a side valley of Wensleydale and has three small villages Newbiggin, Thoralby and West Burton and about about twenty scattered farms.

In the Censuses of 1841 to 1911 there were a large number of Heseltine families in the valley. Now there are hardly any. In my genealogy research I have attempted to link these various families and to trace them as far back as possible. In doing so I have made contact with many other Heseltine researchers in England, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In 2021 I registered a HESELTINE One Name Study with the Guild of One Name Studies to extend the range of my research. Many of the HESELTINES from the dales moved in seacrh of employment leading to large concentrations in the industrial areas of West Yorkshire and Lancashire, also the mining area of South West Durham. There are also significant concentrationd of HESELTINES in Hull and North Lincolnshire, Pontefract and Shropshire, as yet unconnected. Some emigrated leading to populations in North America and Australia.

I have also made some use of DNA studies to link the Heseltines in my tree to other branches. Unfortunately YDNA is of little use to me as my grandfather was almost certainly illegitimate. I have been more successful with autosomal DNA but know there is much more to be discovered.

I am in contact with Lance Haseltine in the USA who has recently set up a Haseltine project with FTDNA and would be pleased to have more people joining that project. I would be happy to receive details of other branches and trees which could be added to the HESELTINE One Name Study.

My tree also includes also many other related Dales families which may be of interest to other researchers. These include WEBSTER, THWAITE, METCALFE, PICKARD,COATES,DINSDALE.

Contact & Collaboration

I welcome contacts from others interested in these surnames and who wish to collaborate or make submissions to the study. If you are researching a Heseltine family or a variant of the name regardless of where they are please do get in touch.